The whole world is going through troubled times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the severely affected countries by the virus are under lockdown in order to maintain social distancing. Because of this, several business industries are suffering in a way they had never dreamt of. But the current situation has turned out to be favorable for the gaming industry as the sales of consoles and games surged higher.
To stop the spread of the coronavirus, people around the world are being advised to stay home and follow social distancing as much as possible. Some countries even went ahead and ordered total lockdown to enforce people to stay indoors.
Thus, people have nothing to do (those who can’t work from home) other than stream media and play video games. According to an analysis by Gamesindustry.biz on the recent data from Games Sales Data (GSD), the consoles and games sale climbed between March 16 and 22.
Ever since Microsoft and Sony started hinting the release of their next-generation gaming consoles, the sales of consoles declined in recent months as people are waiting to invest in the latest products expected to release in the holiday season. However, the current situation urged people to buy the existing current-gen consoles like PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
As per the data, the sales of consoles rose to 155%, which is significantly higher in recent times. The consoles’ sales in Australia were up by 285.6%, 250% in the UK, 140.6% in France, 84% in Italy, and 66% in Spain. Whereas, digital game downloads were up by 52.9% in 50 markets without including Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Interestingly, even physical games sales jumped to 82%.
During these hard times, video gaming has become a viable option to kill time for most people according to the sales data.
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(Via)
