Video games: an industry benefited by the quarantine

The confinement product of the pandemic by Covid-19 has brought with it numerous problems in the economy of the entire world, only in Latin America a drop in GDP of up to 8% is forecast according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) ) , this economic contraction would be the strongest in the 21st century and will significantly increase poverty in the region, according to EFE. However, the quarantine has been a blessing for the game industry. 

The growth of the video game industry is not something new, since 2019 they report higher revenues to industries such as music or cinema, since only in that year they generated 148,000 million dollars worldwide according to an article by Forbes, which which meant a growth of 7.2% over the previous year, for its part, the film industry earned $ 42.2 billion at the box office during 2019 according to Statista, while the music industry generated $ 20.2 billion the same year, although the three industries have reported overall growth, the way the video game market grows and has strengthened is far superior.

Video games are not in quarantine

With many companies limited by confinement, video games are going in the opposite direction and growing even more, companies show that the time their users spend playing has increased as well as new registered users, this is due to the free time that many people experience during the quarantine, so they take advantage of video games as entertainment but also as a way to socialize with people through multiplayer platforms such as Fornite, it is also expected that a good part of the new players will become frequent users, according to As.

Despite the fact that video game events and fairs have also been suspended, the industry has been able to take advantage of this phase of user growth, games such as Pubg multiplied their users and became the most downloaded application on the App Store during the month of February , the Steam video game platform -which offers games like Counter Strike- also broke twice the record of players connected simultaneously in the same month, with up to 23.4 million users at the same time, on the other hand, several paid video games have transitioned to the free download mode to benefit from the increase in users, according to Infobae.

Latin Americans like to play

In the figures provided by Forbes, Latin America turned out to be the region where video games grew the most, with an annual increase of 8.9%, which means 1.7% more than the global number, despite only 4% of videogame revenue coming from this part of the world. However, Latin American video game companies have also benefited during the quarantine. One of them is HOPLON, a Brazilian developer with a presence in 70 countries, which has reported a 30% increase in the frequency of its users gambling in the middle of the quarantine, which has meant an increase in monetization, according to BN. Americas.

The Argentine developer of video games for phones Etermax also shows positive figures, with 40% more users, the premiere of 3 video games and 20% more downloads, which has allowed the company to increase its investments in technology to grow their business.

Also read: It may interest you: The 5 most downloaded smartphone games

Video game streaming up

Talking about streaming is not necessarily referring to movies, since there are also platforms for video games such as Twitch, which transmits live user games and where "professional players" of video games are usually present. In recent months, Twitch reported a cumulative user growth of 80%, according to 20 Minutes.

Twitch has also achieved other records such as having more than 4 million viewers connected at the same time, a number that it had never reached and has already done so several times during the quarantine. Likewise, its streamers have pointed out that transmissions report more viewers than normal and their followers spend more time consuming their content, according to El Español.