IGN News

A closer look at gaming in 2020 and beyond.

Gaming has surged and here is why.

By Ian Kinuthia

Updated: 30 Oct 2020 9:20 am

Posted: 30 Oct 2020 9:20 am

With the rise of the world altering COVID-19 pandemic which slowed many peoples day to day life to a halt through worldwide quarantine efforts lasting 2-5 months keeping people in there homes with lots of free time, gaming as an industry has managed to grow at an enormous rate despite 2020 being one of the toughest on a global scale.

In the early spring of 2020, COVID-19 was a fresh topic, an unknown, foreign and highly infectious virus which had made its way into the United States almost as quickly as it was discovered. This virus forced governmental officials to decide next steps for the entire 382 million plus population, the most effective way was through quarantine and lockdown. With an abundance of time to spend at home isolated from stores, parks, friends and family alike many people searched for ways to pass the time, they turned to new hobbies and gaming was one of these. Looking at console sales data it is even more evident that gaming went through a surge early spring with console sales across the three major consoles Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch increasing by 163% on hardware alone(According to GeekWire). On the flip side, games such as Animal Crossing which broke sales records selling 11.77 million units within its first week(According to Nintendolife). Boasting numbers like these it is clear to see that early pandemic was a time of insurmountable growth for gaming as a whole, how this growth would continue as people progressed into their new normal.

As mentioned above Animal Crossings 2020 release titled New Horizon debuted March 21st 2020 and achieved it's record breaking numbers within only a week, a large factor in the games success was the fun escape from the real world into a virtual one where there is no pandemic and the biggest thing to worry about was your butterfly collection. Other games that were seen spiking in the midst of quarantine were titles such as Fall Guys the fun battle royale party game that was released in August of 2020 on Steam and PS4 where on the latter platform it became the most downloaded PSPlus game as of the end of August 2020, with 7 million units sold(According to The Verge). Another of these games goes under the title Among Us another group game this time with a murder mystery twist, this game at it's peak had 7.2 million players on Steam(According to Playtracker) without taking account for the mobile version that also flourished. As the pandemic raged on into the summer months keeping people indoors, games such as these rose in popularity even generating mainstream media buzz which led to more people picking up these titles. Even for those who couldn't afford the newest console or PC and the hottest new games there was an alternative. 

The alternative gaming entertainment outside of gaming itself, is to simply watch others play. Similar to watching live sports, live gaming streams were also around for years before the pandemic but saw their numbers drastically increase during the COVID-19 pandemic and following lockdown periods. With more time at home people turned towards gaming live streams to relieve their tension from the real world and boredom from quarantine, with the number one streaming website Twitch being the one to benefit the most from it. During the earlier period of quarantine Twitch saw a 41% increase in watch time while their average concurrent viewers peaked at 2.48 million in April 2020(According to Twitch Tracker). Twitch had solidified itself as one of the biggest platforms for entertainment amid the pandemic, but it would continue to hold this position throughout the summer months and into the fall. Wherein one of the most relevant Twitch streams would occur, this was in October 2020 when congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would create a twitch account and stream Among Us with other relevant content creators. Despite the stream being a bid to encourage youth voters in the 2020 election, the stream would still go on to generate a shocking 426k peak viewers within her one and only stream(According to Twitch Tracker). The versatility and capability of Twitch was definitely tested during the COVID-19 pandemic but like many other facets of the gaming industry, it certainly gained a lot more attention than it lost. 

2020 was certainly a rough year, with the pandemic, lockdowns and quarantine. But to a specific group who tended to stay at home and game even before the pandemic this wasn't much of a change. The real change came as that group grew over time during the pandemic, with more and more people buying consoles and games, and games becoming more and more popular and widespread, all the while streaming and other forms of gaming entertainment continued strong, This growth was a result of people being at home, searching for a new fun way to spend their time and socialize with friends from the comfort of their home. Their search led them to gaming.