- 2020 is seeing almost 2x as many PC gamers online since last year, while traditional console sales continue to fall short of their 2012 peak.
- Unique among traditional gaming brands, Nintendo has delivered games with broader appeal and digital downloads to great success during the lockdown.
Ever since businesses closed doors and people shut themselves in, conditions have proven ripe for an acceleration of the ongoing shift in gaming towards greater accessibility, broader appeal and community-building. While these trends predated the pandemic, the current landscape of COVID-19 lockdowns has brought them to the forefront of the entertainment industry.
To explore the explosion of online gaming and streaming during the coronavirus pandemic, ValueChampion analysed the change in popularity of different games and gaming platforms, as well as the success of video game streaming services like Steam and Twitch during peak pandemic months, in order to assess how the global COVID-19 lockdowns may have legitimized this new phenomena of game play.
Key Findings
