Topline:&nbsp;With school closures, mandatory work-from-home policies and lockdowns taking place in the U.S. as a result of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, gaming has seen higher engagement, especially over this past weekend.



<ul><li>Steam, the most popular digital PC gaming marketplace, reached new heights Sunday, drawing a record 20,313,451 concurrent users to the 16-year-old service,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/1239180882826715136?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to third-party database SteamDB</a>.</li><li>Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, released by Steam-owner Valve in 2012, seems to be the top beneficiary of the increased engagement,&nbsp;<a href="https://steamcharts.com/app/730#48h" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">breaking it&#8217;s all-time peak on Sunday</a>&nbsp;with 1,023,2290 concurrent players, topping its previous peak last month by a million, which itself beat the record set in April 2016.</li><li>Like other esports,&nbsp;CS:GO&nbsp;has had to cancel events due to the virus, particularly the Intel Extreme Masters in Katowice earlier this month,&nbsp;<a href="https://escharts.com/tournaments/csgo/iem-katowice-2020-csgo" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">though its peak viewership reached over a million</a>, making it one of the most watched tournaments in the esports&#8217; history.</li><li>Activision Blizzard&#8217;s new free-to-play battle royale spinoff&nbsp;Call of Duty: Warzone, launched March 10 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, is also likely benefiting,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1238678829956247553" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">drawing in a staggering 15 million in three days</a>, besting the record 10 million in three days by last year&#8217;s battle royale sensation&nbsp;Apex Legends.</li><li>These new heights follows similar effects of the virus on China and Italy:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-12/housebound-italian-kids-strain-network-with-fortnite-marathon" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Telecom Italia&#8217;s CEO told Bloomberg</a>&nbsp;it saw a 70% increase in traffic over its landline network, with&nbsp;Fortnite&nbsp;playing a significant part, while Chinese live-streaming service Douyu experienced increased viewership of the country&#8217;s most popular games,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2020/02/26/seven-surprising-facts-about-coronavirus/#226d2ea629d1">according to market analyst Niko Partners</a>.</li><li>While gaming was considered &#8220;recession proof&#8221; during the 2008 market crash, stocks aren&#8217;t immune to the current historic drops: software developers like Activision Blizzard are facing a 9% decrease in price year-to-date, while hardware companies that rely on Chinese manufacturing like Nintendo are seeing bigger drops of 24%.</li></ul>



What To Watch For: If these records keep rising as the closings and lockdowns continue. Arriving this week is Nintendo&#8217;s long-awaited Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Switch console, a relaxing &#8220;life-simulator&#8221; that&#8217;s set to have a big day with many fans not-so-jokingly asking Nintendo to launch early.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Nintendo do the right thing and release Animal Crossing today, forcing people to stay inside and containing the coronavirus. You have the power to end this&mdash; Paul Ritchey (@PaulRitchey) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulRitchey/status/1237795309226524673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 11, 2020</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Surprising Fact: Plague Inc., a game that tasks players in creating a virus that wipes out humanity, surged in popularity late January, becoming the top-paid game on the Chinese app store at one point, but <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/02/27/china-removed-epidemic-themed-game-plague-inc-from-the-china-app-store/#10671abf4e50">the game has now been removed in China</a> at the direction of the government.



Further Reading: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/03/13/youre-working-from-home-and-want-to-try-gaming-heres-how/#53119614316b">So You’re Suddenly Working From Home And Want To Try Gaming? Here’s How To Get Started.</a> 



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/">Matt Perez</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/innovation">Innovation</a>

Tag: E-Sports

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Video Games Are Being Played At Record Levels As The Coronavirus Keeps People Indoors