As the novel Coronavirus forces people to stay at home and practice social isolation from the outside world and from everyone else, gamers have been playing double time on whatever platform they may be in. This has caused games like Counter Strike to rise by the numbers as weeks go by, for example, Steam has now reached an all-time high number of concurrent players which is over 20 million.
They have beaten their old record
On March 15, though only 6 million were in-game, Steam has reached a massive and staggering 20, 313,451 people that were using their platform simultaneously. This marked the moment wherein they have beaten their old record which was under 20 million 24 hours earlier.
This sudden surge is caused by the Coronavirus
The milestone is undoubtedly one of the most impressive numbers a digital platform can ever have though it has been acknowledged that the numbers were boosted by the Coronavirus that has been plaguing the planet.
As many nations all over the world implement social distancing, self-isolation, self-quarantine, and lockdowns, people are now forced to stay and work from home as we wait for this virus to pass. It not surprising that most would turn to games as a method to kill boredom and pass the time.
Game Popularity has increased
So what are these gamers playing as they pass the time waiting for the virus to go away?
Counterstrike: Global Offensive is considered to be the most highly played and popular game on the platform. This First Person Shooter by Valved has racked in over 1 million players for the first time ever this weekend.
Other games like Dota 2, Warframe, Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, Monster Hunter World, Grand Theft Auto V, ARK: Survival Evolved, TemFortress 2, Destiny 2, and Rainbow Six Siege have all risen to the top of the charts of the most popular games right now.
This is not the first time that surges in games and applications have occurred. In fact, according to Tech Times, while the novel Coronavirus was just starting out to spread back in January and February, gaming apps, education, and business apps have risen as well.
China's app store at that time rose to a whopping 45% more on first-time installs compared to 2019. Business applications have skyrocketed as well though, not the same can be said for travel applications. "As gaming, educational, and business apps are currently rising, travel apps, however, have been contracting, bringing the numbers down to an unusually massive decline of 36%." the report has said.
It is expected by most people in the gaming community that games will more likely be rising as the Coronavirus grows and spreads more as the days go by. This has already helped a lot of gamers and streamers on Twitch and Mixer, YouTube and on any other platform.
