Covid spread and continued lockdown has affected industries except for Gaming as it has been fuelled with increased interest to render skills to social networking platforms like: YouTube & Twitch.
"Stay Home. Stay Safe" has become the slogan of the year encouraging more people to stay home and try not to indulge themselves outside unless necessary. Such has upscaled the normal growth of gaming of around 3% to around 5% in the present year, 2020.
Subscription based content has long been promoted by Netflix, Disney Hotstar, and many others where there is no need to spend time in downloading rather watch online on the go. Such concept has been initiated in gaming as well with the inception of Google Stadia and subscription based online gaming, where hardware does not matter anymore than a decent network speed to be able to stream online.
Apart from such, with existing hardwares, online gaming has experienced a massive surge in this lockdown with around 45% more play times than normal. As per the Global Gaming Data by Mordor Intelligence, a valuation of $151.55 Billion in 2019 is expected to reach $256.97 Billion by 2025.
There is nothing entertaining as playing online games with other players which has bothered down loneliness along with 30 - 40% more addiction to such titles.
Online Games with excess popularity and increased indulgence of playtime hours may be listed as :
• PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds :
The entertained title of Battle Royale ever experienced has bagged its popularity since 2016. Ramming over the maps with inevitability of being hunted down at any moment, Gamers love such online game of roaming and collecting supplies in a survival mode. Even more into addiction, with the release of PUBG Mobile, exceeding over $1.5 Billion in 2019. Till date, PUBG stays in the third position as
Steam Charts data, with total hours played of 123,296,378.
• Call of Duty Warzone :
Latest release of Activision in March 2020, Warzone has been the most preferred onlie game mostly by the Battlefield or COD lovers. With its Battle Royale element, Warzone has reached its maximum played hours of approximately 2.4 Billion.
• Hyperscape :
Ubisoft's latest release on July, 2020, It is one of the fast paced online games like Overwatch, Apex Legends and also a free-to-play. Also being a Battle Royale, this game has a completely different approach set in a futuristic world with powerful hacks and unique weapon collections. Jumping over the rooftops, making strafe runs and shooting on the go makes the game super exciting for arcade lovers.
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege :
Completely different form the usual shooter games, it is more of a stealth based and tactics based strategised action game where players need to defuse a bomb, capture the area, or free a hostage. RSS has its popularity later after the year 2017 and is now one among the top ten games mostly played as per Steam Charts.
Many other online games has increased popularity as in DOTA 2, CS: GO, Warface, Warframe and now the most common game among streamers being FALL GUYS.
