Coronavirus: World turns to Esports amid Covid-19 scare

The threat of coronavirus has forced companies worldwide to shut down their offices and lockdowns are going into effect. People have been forced into self-isolation and as per reports, they are increasingly turning to esports to kill time.

In fact, through esports people have been interacting with friends and family they may not see in person in the coming days. As a result, games like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends have seen a spike in users.

With schools and colleges shutting down and millions of kids staying home, gaming networks are seeing a crush of players hitting their services.

Activision Blizzard’s (ATVI) free-to-download “Call of Duty: Warzone,” saw as much as 15 million players in just four days following its launch on March 10.

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Fortnite, on the other hand, has seen an unmatched popularity in Italy, a country which has been affected extremely by covid-19. Such is the situation, that it’s begun to stress the country’s telecom systems, according to Bloomberg. A record 20 million users playing simultaneously on March 15, were recorded on Valve’s Steam platform.

With schools from New York to California shutting down and millions of kids staying home, gaming networks are seeing a crush of players hitting their services.

Also read: Sports Games are primed to grow in India: Report

Video games are becoming a popular option as directives for social distancing. With almost every sports event cancelled or postponed, people are looking for stay-at-home entertainment options and as a result, the esports industry is booming.

Thankfully, for a number of publishers the lockdown has come at the perfect time. Several games like, Activision’s “Call of Duty: Warzone,” Bethesda Softworks’ “Doom Eternal,” and Nintendo’s “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, are all launching around the time of the coronavirus lockdowns.