Walking around Dublin city, there’s one business that is very obviously doing well: competitive socialising. That’s the term for adult-centric games venues. Bowling alleys and arcades used to primarily be the preserve of children’s birthday parties in the suburbs. But a rapid change is occurring, with venues moving into city centres, and changing the dynamic of evening socialising, with large international brands entering the picture. Why are grown-ups so keen on playing all of a sudden?

The contemporary model of competitive socialising is a downstream result of two enterprises that emerged from hipster culture in its birthplace, Williamsburg in Brooklyn. In 2004 a group of friends opened Barcade in the neighbourhood, a bar with arcade games serving craft beer. Five years later, Brooklyn Bowl opened nearby, blending bowling lanes with a music venue. In both cases, this combination of repurposing old buildings, the renewed appeal of analogue activities, a sense of nostalgia for the night out and the venues’ aesthetic all clicked. This is the competitive socialising equivalent of the cerulean sweater in The Devil Wears Prada: you begin with a few friends in Williamsburg installing repaired Pac-Man machines in what was once a metal shop, and 20 years later, you’re playing augmented darts off Grafton Street thanks to a UK brand identifying a gap in the Irish market.

Dan Begley is co-owner of Super Social, a competitive socialising venue in Leopardstown, Dublin. He and his business partner, Paul........

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