The COVID-19 pandemic has caused stay-at-home activities to become drastically more popular. As more people practice social distancing and stay indoors, gaming has seen a dramatic rise in usage.
According to Verizon’s latest week-on-week report, U.S. gaming usage saw a jump of 75 percent. It’s not the only pastime seeing an increase, as video consumption also grew by 12 percent.
The data is corroborated by online gaming platforms that have experienced surges in their active user base. Steam hit a concurrent user record of 20 million on March 16, while Blizzard’s servers have been crashing due to increased load.
Perhaps the most surprising stat is that social media usage has seen a zero percent increase in spite of the overall increase in web traffic. With more time on their hands, users might be turning to more time-consuming activities that would be otherwise harder to plan around or jump in for a short time.
According to The Washington Post, all 50 states in the U.S. have been hit by the coronavirus, with the confirmed death toll standing at over 100. There’s really no better time than now to practice social responsibility and your in-game skills simultaneously.
While offline gaming and esports events are consistently getting canceled, the constant availability of online video games is still keeping users engaged in these trying times.
