The start of 2020 has been a turbulent period for many industries, including sports. With the majority of the world on some kid of a lockdown and almost all sporting event cancelled, those who used to make a living from competition are mostly out of work until the measures to hold back the pandemic are finally lifted.
There are currently many speculations about when this might happen, but in the meantime most people are spending a lot more time indoors and waiting for life to go back to normal. While most other industries are struggling, the gaming industry has in fact picked up pace, which could have been expected considering it is an indoor activity that does not require physical contact.
In fact, gaming instead of going out is considered by many to be a way of helping the entire world. With the numbers of players and money spent on gaming across the world growing by the day, so is the audience on popular streaming networks like YouTube Gaming and Twitch. Here, you can check the most watched games of 2020 so far.
With all this in mind, we took a short look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has been influencing gaming and the Esports industry as a whole and what we can expect moving forward.
More Gamers than Ever Before
For the first time in the 21st century, we are facing a global health crisis and most governments have decided to take it on by suggesting (or ordering) their people to stay inside as much as possible. Regardless of whether this is the right approach or not, a lot of people are doing just that and this means there are fewer outdoor hobbies to take part in.
According to Verizon, the gaming traffic during peak hours has increased by 75% globally, which is a massive surge in a very short period of time. This would not have happened if not for the pandemic and the gaming industry leaders must be thrilled to see the numbers, even though they come at a difficult time for the humanity.
This surge in gaming time has also led to an increase in the total expenditure people are making on gaming, especially when it comes to online games which often require some kind of a subscription, giving service providers like Steam a great increase in their revenue.
The best thing for game developers is the fact they did not have to let their staff go either, as game development can keep going with most people working from their home offices. This way, the industry just keeps marching forward and becoming bigger than ever before.
Live Esports Events Cancelled
While gaming as such is on an uptick due to being an indoor activity, Esports for the most part are an outdoor one. Many Esports tournaments are played online as well, but all the major events are actually real world tournaments that happen in specific locations. This, unfortunately, has meant that the Esports industry has had to take a break just like most other sports and wait for a better time.
Apart from the big international events being cancelled, the promotional tournaments in emerging markets, which are the best way to spread Esports are also taking a back seat. With events like E3 and GDC not happening when they were planned, many professional Esports players are forced to play smaller online tournaments, which may actually act as a sort of online promotional tool for the industry as a whole.
Twitch Streaming on the Rise
Finally, a relatively novel but very popular part of the gaming industry is online game streaming. Services like Twitch have seen an uptick in the numbers of viewers of between 10 and 25% in the recent months. More and more people are turning to Twitch or YouTube Gaming as a source of income, while others are doing it strictly for entertainment.
Whether you are a streamer yourself or simply enjoy watching some of the content, this is a good time to be on Twitch. With so many more people playing games and great numbers of new streamers showing up on a daily basis, these platforms could hardly have asked for a better way to promote.
