The 2010s (pronounced "twenty-tens" or "two thousand [and] tens"), variously nicknamed "the '10s" ("the Tens") or "the Teens", was the decade that began on January 1, 2010, and ended on December 31, 2019.
The decade began with an economic recovery from the Great Recession. Inflation and interest rates stayed low and steady throughout the decade, gross world product grew from 2010 to 2019. Global economic recovery accelerated during the latter half of the decade, fueled by strong economic growth in many countries, robust consumer spending, increased investment in infrastructure, and the emergence of new technologies. However, the recovery developed unevenly. Socioeconomic crises in some countries—particularly in the Arab world—triggered political revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain as well as civil wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen in a regional phenomenon that was commonly referred to as the Arab Spring. Meanwhile, Europe had to grapple with a debt crisis that was pronounced early in the decade. Shifting social attitudes saw LGBT rights make substantial progress throughout the decade, particularly in developed countries.
The generation offered few signature hardware innovations. Sony and Microsoft continued to produce new systems with similar designs and capabilities as their predecessors, but with improved performance (processing speed, higher-resolution graphics, and increased storage capacity) that further moved consoles into confluence with personal computers, and furthering support for digital distribution and games as a service. Motion-controlled games of the seventh generation had waned in popularity, but consoles were preparing for advancement of virtual reality (VR), with Sony introducing the PlayStation VR in 2016. Sony focused heavily on its first-party developers and console exclusives as key selling points, while Microsoft expanded its gaming services, creating the Xbox Game Pass subscription service for Xbox and Windows computers, and its xCloud game streaming service. Microsoft and Sony consoles saw mid-generation refreshes, with high-end revisions PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox One X, and lower-cost PlayStation 4 Slim and Xbox One S models that lacked some features. As of September 2023, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One families had sold an estimated 117 and 58 million units, respectively. (Full article...)
Image 49The Japanese group AKB48 is one of the most successful J-pop artists. (from 2010s in music)
Image 50Syrian and Iraqi refugees arriving in Greece. In the 2010s Europe had been severely affected by a huge migration from Africa and Middle East (from 2010s)
Image 77The Arab Spring saw mass unrest in the Arab world early in the decade: Government overthrown multiple times Government overthrown Civil war Protests and governmental changes Major protests Minor protests Other protests and militant action outside the Arab world (from 2010s)
Image 81A young woman in a white crop top, 2015 (from 2010s in fashion)
Image 82Adele during this decade established herself as the best selling British female artist of all time. Her 21 (2011) and 25 (2015) became two of the best selling albums of the 2010s. (from 2010s in music)
Image 86The weighted capital city residential property price index, produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, since 2003 (from 2010s)
Image 87Taylor Swift was one of the most successful country artists of the 2010s. Her albums Speak Now (2010) and Red (2012) topped charts and opened with more than a million copies sold in their first weeks. (from 2010s in music)
Image 88Polish youth attending a rock music festival, 2011 (from 2010s in fashion)
Image 89In 2013, China launched the ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, with over 150 countries announcing participation by the end of the decade. (from 2010s)
Image 145Concerns over economic inequality, greed and the influence of corporations on government led to the rise of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 (from 2010s)
Image 148BRICS, a supranational economic cooperative comprising five major emerging national economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—grew to represent over 3.1 billion people, or about 41 percent of the world population by 2015. (from 2010s)
Image 15028 February 2014: following the removal of pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych from office, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine (from 2010s)
Image 154In the 2010s, British girl group Little Mix was cited for helping the girl band renaissance in the UK during the late 00s and into the early 10s. They are also recognized as one of the most successful girl groups from that decade. (from 2010s in music)
Image 155Tool's live performances in 2006 included an elaborate light show using 10,000 Days artwork by painter Alex Grey as a backdrop. (from 2010s in music)
Image 156In 2014 the One World Trade Center opened its doors in the Financial District of Manhattan, serving as a replacement to the original World Trade Center Twin Towers that were destroyed in 2001. On the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in 2011 (the same year Osama bin Laden was killed), the 9/11 Memorial was opened. (from 2010s)
Image 157Nintendo's Wii (2010) was the best selling console of the seventh generation, selling 92.4 million units. (from 2010s in video games)
Image 171Pitbull and Enrique Iglesias recorded a remix version of the album track "Dirty Dancer" was released as the fourth English single and became his ninth Hot Dance Club Play chart topper, tying with Prince and Michael Jackson as the male with the most No. 1 dance singles. (from 2010s in music)
Image 185The A-line dress made a comeback in 2013. Hemlines also became shorter than they were in the early 2010s. (from 2010s in fashion)
Image 186For over 15 months it was unclear what exactly happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 until at the end of July 2015 a few remnants of the plane swept to the shores of the island of Réunion (from 2010s)
Image 187The PlayStation 4 was released in November 2013 and is the best-selling gaming console of the decade (100+ million units sold worldwide as of August 2019[update]). (from 2010s in culture)
Image 188Sam Smith, a photograph from the Lollapalooza concert held in 2015 (from 2010s in music)
... that the board game Glory to Rome, despite being well-received, led to its publisher's bankruptcy in the mid-2010s and has been out of print since?
... that despite being excluded from the standard edition of 1989, "New Romantics" by Taylor Swift was named one of the best songs of the 2010s decade by Rolling Stone?
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![Image 187The PlayStation 4 was released in November 2013 and is the best-selling gaming console of the decade (100+ million units sold worldwide as of August 2019[update]). (from 2010s in culture)](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/PS4-Console-wDS4.png/120px-PS4-Console-wDS4.png)
