Coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected all of us and now everyone is playing or working from home only. Many companies like Ubisoft, Rockstar, CD Project RED, and other gaming giants shifted to remote working. Students are now home too, that also means that people now have more time to play video games. In Verizon’s latest report, the US telecom firm we knew that gaming us has increased.
Online gaming usage increased by 75 percent
According to The Hollywood Reporter, many are turning to gaming as they are indoors because of the pandemic. Gaming usage has passed 75 percent in its peak hours since the quarantine first went into effect last week. Verizon’s chief technology officer Kyle Malady said the following:
As we see more and more individuals work from home and students engage in online learning. It is a natural byproduct that we would see an increase in web traffic and access to VPN. And as more entertainment options are cancelled in communities across the U.S., an increase in video traffic and online gaming is not surprising.
Besides gaming usage increasing, live streams saw a rise too. According to StreamElements, global viewership on Youtube Gaming increased by 15 percent while Twitch saw a 10 percent growth. The company’s CEO Doron Nir said in a statement that with more and more people staying at their homes, as they expect “to see these number rise”. Based on StreamElements statistics, live-streamed gaming content has increased by 66% in terms of hours watched in Italy.
Coronavirus forced everyone to go digital
COVID-10 canceled many big events like E3 2020 and White Nights Conference Barcelona. It also made others go digital like Pocket Gamer, BAFTA Games Awards, Apple’s WWDC, and GDC 2020 who started live-streaming its talk today. What to do now? you can set up a Discord server to make your remote work easier or start contributing to gaming usage percent by playing.
