Videogames Are Setting New Records For Simultaneous Users (forbes.com) 19
Forbes reports that in a world filled with school closings and social isolation, gaming has surged:
- 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, according to third-party database SteamDB
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, released by Steam-owner Valve in 2012, seems to be the top beneficiary of the increased engagement, breaking it's all-time peak on Sunday with 1,023,2290 concurrent players, topping its previous peak last month by a million, which itself beat the record set in April 2016...
- Activision Blizzard's new free-to-play battle royale spinoff Call of Duty: Warzone, launched March 10 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, is also likely benefiting, drawing in a staggering 15 million in three days, besting the record 10 million in three days by last year's battle royale sensation Apex Legends.
Polygon adds: Gaming saw a 75% increase, week over week, in data usage this March, Verizon said. Video games are proving to be a popular way to pass the time during lockdown -- though we're also starting to see the strain this is placing on various networks and services... Recently, Nintendo experienced a nine-hour network outage. Over the weekend, Xbox Live also went down, preventing users from online play.
Gaming adjacent tools and services are also seeing a surge. As our sibling site The Verge reports, live streaming platform Twitch had a 10% jump in viewership. The popular communication app Discord, meanwhile, recently saw server outages that coincided days after it expanded its screen sharing limit for users.
The games that people are playing themselves are changing in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, too. Pokemon Go, for instance, has tweaked its mechanics to make it easier for people to play from home, while also changing its events to make it easier for people to play solo. And in an effort to entice its players to stay home, Rockstar vowed to add fun bonuses to the MMO for players who are "spending a little extra time at home." Elsewhere, game developers are starting to give out their games for free in an effort to help people stay indoors. It's no wonder we're seeing changes in usage, playtime, and outages across the board.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, released by Steam-owner Valve in 2012, seems to be the top beneficiary of the increased engagement, breaking it's all-time peak on Sunday with 1,023,2290 concurrent players, topping its previous peak last month by a million, which itself beat the record set in April 2016...
- Activision Blizzard's new free-to-play battle royale spinoff Call of Duty: Warzone, launched March 10 on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4, is also likely benefiting, drawing in a staggering 15 million in three days, besting the record 10 million in three days by last year's battle royale sensation Apex Legends.
Polygon adds: Gaming saw a 75% increase, week over week, in data usage this March, Verizon said. Video games are proving to be a popular way to pass the time during lockdown -- though we're also starting to see the strain this is placing on various networks and services... Recently, Nintendo experienced a nine-hour network outage. Over the weekend, Xbox Live also went down, preventing users from online play.
Gaming adjacent tools and services are also seeing a surge. As our sibling site The Verge reports, live streaming platform Twitch had a 10% jump in viewership. The popular communication app Discord, meanwhile, recently saw server outages that coincided days after it expanded its screen sharing limit for users.
The games that people are playing themselves are changing in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, too. Pokemon Go, for instance, has tweaked its mechanics to make it easier for people to play from home, while also changing its events to make it easier for people to play solo. And in an effort to entice its players to stay home, Rockstar vowed to add fun bonuses to the MMO for players who are "spending a little extra time at home." Elsewhere, game developers are starting to give out their games for free in an effort to help people stay indoors. It's no wonder we're seeing changes in usage, playtime, and outages across the board.
How is this trolling?? (Score:1)
Are the moderators too stupid to get a simple argument: That the headline is brutally obvious, and treating it as news is as ridiculous as the headlines I mentioned for humorous reasons.
Jeez, some people really do need to get a grip!
World of Warcraft (Score:2)
Also 100% experience bonus in World of Warcraft
So, no winter baby boom? (Score:2)
Seemed like the perfect opportunity for a different sort of socializing...
Re: So, no winter baby boom? (Score:2)
That kind of thinking is what got us into this mess. :)
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Seemed like the perfect opportunity for a different sort of socializing...
Only in Alabama.
go read a book (Score:1)
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Somewhere predestined. A decent game on the other hand can take you where you want to go. I understand the book vs movie thing, but no idea why someone would prefer a book over a decent video game.
Gamestop (Score:2)
I guess that explains why Gamestop is fighting to keep their doors open. They need to cash in on as much business as possible before they collapse.
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I feel true sympathy for Gamestop and all its soon to be former employees, but I could have steered that ship better drunk.
In the real world though (Score:2)
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Oh noes, I don't get to be matched with hundreds of griefers simultaneously
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That's a stupid thing to say, and you should feel stupid for saying it.
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Consoles sold out (Score:2)
Locally Xboxes, PS4s and Switches (except the Switch lite) are all sold out. I know several coworkers bought consoles last week.
Also Animal Crossing was released last week. I suspect it'll have been one of the biggest launches of any Nintendo game.
Even the gym junkies are out in force. Zwift is currently seeing so many riders that when you join a ride you can barely see the road through all the cycling avatars.
FPS: (Score:2)
Has there EVER been another FPS, including the sequels, that could do super-huge, more than two, or even three or four teams death matches like the original Unreal Tournament? It seems like the original UT opened up door to multiplayer that were ahead of its time and not quite duplicated after.