The worldwide outbreak of the covid-19 virus has impacted many people, tech industries, businesses, and the retail sector. Noticed in early 2020, this left many people jobless, hungry, and with lockdown being imposed on restaurants, schools, universities, the entertainment world, amusement, religious and tourist places everything was locked down.
With people locked down under their homes, video games have helped people to be sane in the times of covid-19. The Video game industry skyrocketed in pandemic and has reported immense sales and growth even in these times. To prevent the outbreak of the virus people were advised to stay at home practicing social distancing and self-isolation. A lot of people found different ways to occupy their time in different activities. Playing indoor games and video games increased further in the time of COVID-19.
In this blog, we are going to see how video games have kept people sane in the lockdown and how developers have provided gamers with some fantastic games.
Source: Simon-Kucher & Partners; Gaming Monetization Quant Survey
ISFE-commissioned Ipsos MORI report:
The International Software Federation of Europe in their commissioned Ipsos MORI report carried out in Quarter1 and Quarter2 showed that playing video games is somewhat beneficial for mental health during the times of lockdown. One of its findings also focused on some parents who found it useful for educating their children. Let us now see some key findings related to the report:
- Around 13-14 % of people have claimed to have found a new video game.
- 29% of the people as per the report states that playing video games have had a positive impact on their mental health during isolation especially multiplayer games
- 30% of the players said they feel less anxious and isolated in lockdown. They feel happier to play games.
- 1 in 5 parents was seen to have played video games with their kids during the lockdown
- 1 in 5 parents claimed that playing video games helped them with their child’s education and studies.
The Situation of Game Developers in the times of Covid-19:
We know that the gaming industry saw hiked growth during the times of pandemic. With everyone working remotely from home a lot of game developers faced tremendous issues working from home. It became difficult for video game developers, especially VR developers to work remotely with all the essential types of equipment and devices to develop the game.
The Need to Socialize has resulted in an increased sale for video games:
People being stuck at their homes during lockdown were forced to stay at home leaving them with fewer activities to get occupied with. Due to this, playing or streaming video games has become popular. Before Covid-19, many used to think of video games as a waste of time and used to think that playing video games only has negative impacts on our mental and physical health. Though everything has its pros and cons, during these tough times to keep ourselves sane, video games have helped people to enjoy their time.
Conclusion:
This year COVID-19 has adversely affected our entire lifestyle. Right from locked up in our homes to people becoming jobless, without food to all sorts of natural calamities happening across the globe. Especially with the gaming industry and game developers who worked hard in these tough times to provide their audience with entertaining, fun, and engaging video games. Video games do have a positive impact on our health if played wisely.
Limited duration of playing games online helps you to improve your mood, helps you to relax, have fun with family members, and gives you positivity. Video games played wisely help to overcome anxiety and improve overall mental health by socializing with friends online with more fun and in an interactive manner.
Let us just hope we say goodbye to all the sorrows, miseries, losses, sadness of 2020 and welcome 2021 with a lot of positivity and hope!
