People spent $10 billion on digital video games during COVID-19 lockdown

CALIFORNIA: In order to fight with boredom during lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic, people spent $10 billion on digital video games in last month (March).

According to a report, the month of March saw rise in video gaming spending by people who remained stuck at home for more than a month. Over $883 million were earned by the major console games in February whereas the earnings in March reached to $1.5 billion.

The report said that the spending on PC games also witnessed a 56% increase and reached $567 million in the same comparison.

“Individuals are turning to games as a reliable entertainment option during the Covid-19 crisis and are using online multiplayer to keep in touch with others,” the report read.

“Nintendo sold five million copies of its family-friendly “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” in March, setting a sales record for the most units of a digital console game sold in a single month.”

“Spending rose 15% on mobile games, a lot of them played on smartphones, reaching $5.7 billion in March.”

“Among other leading titles, “Pokémon Go” saw revenue for the mobile game grow 18% as in March after maker Niantic modified features to make it easier to play without needing to be out and about,” it added.

Social networking giant Facebook always remains busy in bringing something new to entertain its users. Grabbing the opportunity during lockdown, the platform has launched a gaming app, just to keep its millions of users around the world away from boredom.

The new dedicated gaming app, which is said to be a challenger for Amazon’s Twitch platform, will allow people to create, watch and participate in livestreams of games on e-sports and other competitions online.

According to Facebook, the new app is available for both Android as well as Apple’s iOS platform.

“Introducing the Facebook Gaming App is all about encouraging meaningful community interactions for people locked down due to the coronavirus pandemic,” said the social networking site. “It will enable users to watch e-sports or game competitions as well as participate in games with other users online,” it added.

As per reports, the new app has successfully managed to attract over 700 million global users since its launch.

“The Facebook Gaming app is a focused, gaming-only experience where you can watch your favourite streamers, play instant games and take part in gaming groups,” the leading social network said in a statement. “It’s all of Facebook Gaming in one neat, app-sized package.”