It's probably better for more people to not get a real pet.

Racing simulators are such a weird game. Why not just race real cars? Do people really do this?

That's silly. I understand that not everyone can afford a race car.

But everyone can afford a pet? Can afford to take care of them? Has the time? What about vacations and travel? You really can't imagine why someone would find this appealing?

One of the leading reasons pets end up at animal shelters etc is that their owners can't afford to cover their medical costs. Dogs develop cancer just like humans do, many breeds are prone to joint problems, spinal injuries, etc, and the treatment costs often quickly grow to thousands of dollars and more. So yes, a lot of people who get a pet can't really afford to own a pet, they just don't know it yet. As a side note, if you want to avoid that being you, I recommend checking out Trupanion [0].

[0] https://www.trupanion.com/

> As of March 2021, over 83 million units have been sold worldwide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi

Unlike with a pet, nothing actually suffers if/when you lose interest/forget about it and the Tamagotchi dies.

That said, as holiday season approaches we're probably going to get another wave of people actually buying some poor cute animal to treat as a Tamagotchi, to be returned or let loose once they've gotten bored with it.