There’s a cure for broken mobile screens, but not for the most communicable and scary disease going around the world. Coronavirus has infected more than 93,200 people as of now. The number seems to be only increasing, especially in India. The only solution for now is to quarantine possible cases and wait for them to recover through drug administration.
Surprisingly it is working, but it’s leaving people immensely bored. To make their wait bearable, millions of people stuck at home turning to mobile games. It’s been estimated that mobile game downloads have increased rapidly by 39% in the month of February.
Most of these download requests came from China, according to Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. February’s first three weeks registered an 80% jump in weekly game downloads. Globally, mobile game downloads have touched the 4 billion milestone, in comparison to 2.9 billion in 2019.
In China, Apple’s App Store registered a record boost of 62% increase in downloads. Mind-teasing strategy games like ‘Brain Out’ and ‘Honor of Kings’ have been downloaded the most in China according to App Annie, another mobile app analytics firm.
These new gamers are investing their hard-earned money in the games’ micro-transactions, especially in ‘Game for Peace’, PUBG’s Chinese version. ‘Lineage 2’ peaked in the graph for user spending in South Korea.
Game publishers Blizzard and Activision will benefit the most because of this recent trend. On the other front, mobile phone companies like Samsung, Apple, and Nokia are suffering a slump in smartphone sales. The correlation between quarantine and mobile games has been backed by Stephens analyst Jeff Cohen, who wrote notes to clients explaining, "Gaming has been one of the main beneficiaries in terms of increased time spent due to quarantine."
Coronavirus’ spread started from the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Currently, it has killed more than 3,203 people globally. To protect against it, the Indian government has advised citizens to use a 3-layered face mask and disposable gloves when they go out.
