“Impact of Covid19 on Gaming Industry”

Project title – Impact of Covid19 on Gaming Industry

Course Title: Fundamentals of Computer System

Course ID: CIS101+L
Section: 05
Semester: Summer 2022
Institution: Independent University, Bangladesh
Submission Date: 16th April 2022
Submitted to: Md. Eusha Kadir
Department: Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA)
Submitted By: Akibur Rahman
 Abstract
Numerous sectors have been affected by the covid-19 epidemic in unforeseen ways. The
video game business is one of these industries. People spent more time at home, so they
turned to video games to socialize and relieve tension. The goal of this research is to look into
the effects of Covid19 on the game industry. We addressed the social and psychological
effects of games on people during the epidemic in the first section of our research. The stock
prices of key gaming firms, as well as the number of daily active players on digital
gaming platforms, were investigated. We noticed a considerable increase in the number of
active gamers and users. The hypothesis that significant corporations in the gaming sector
grew their share values was established, and hypothesis tests verified this theory. We looked
at the pandemic period, the expansion of the sector, and the economic impact of this growth.
Because of the increased demand for video games, the stock values of video game firms are
also rising.
 Introduction
Coronavirus illness first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. COVID-19 has now become a
global pandemic, with 76.9 million individuals infected and 1.7 million deaths, affecting 214
countries and regions as of May 4, 2020. The epidemic and the measures adopted to combat it have
had a significant impact on our societal development. Wearing surgical masks, keeping a safe
distance, mass testing, contact tracing, and quarantine have all been utilized to stop this virus from
spreading from person to person in a short amount of time. Restaurants, cinemas, entertainment
venues, museums, and numerous other facilities were temporarily closed in addition to these
restrictions. People's common anxiety and stress relaxation methods have become impracticable as a
result of the measures adopted. People who are outside have difficulty performing face-to-face
conversations because of issues such as not seeing gestures and not hearing the voice properly
because of the mask. People who are confined to their homes and require social interaction have had
to discover alternate ways to relieve their worry and stress. In light of all the precautions and issues,
video games have emerged as a viable alternative for escaping these difficulties. In the short term,
people's ability to cope with stress has risen as a result of video games and social engagement through
online gaming. Even before the epidemic, the digital game business drew notice as one of the fastest-
growing industries in the world. The sector diversified during the pandemic, and the growth rate
increased as the number of competitors grew and new enterprises entered the market. For example, at
the time of the epidemic, Steam, a popular gaming distributor, announced that it had more than 20
million concurrent active users in its 16-year history, and that number is growing every day. In this
study we aim to find:
1) How many people started playing games during pandemic?
2) Why did they choose to do so?
And from the results of the survey we can tell if the number of people who started playing games are
high or not. We can also tell if playing games really helped them get through these trying times.
 Literature Rereview
The Covid19 outbreak that emerged at the beginning of 2020 negatively affected the health sector and
the entertainment industry. Cinemas and theaters were closed to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
Many people staying at home turned to home entertainment, and they turned to video games to get
away from epidemic stress and have fun. A total of 1.58 million physical games were sold worldwide
from March 16 to March 22. The debut of popular Nintendo games contributed to the overall gain of
82 percent over the previous week. (Gough, 2020) The World Health Organization (WHO) observed
the high level of interest in gaming and assessed it in order to prevent a pandemic. The World Health
Organization has started sending out various signals to the global and diverse gaming sector in order
to prevent the spread of covid19. To spread these messages, 18 entertainment industry leaders
founded #PlayApartTogether, an initiative that urges large user networks to follow WHO's hygienic
requirements, which include physical distance, hand cleanliness, respiratory etiquette, and other
decisive preventative measures. This program provides special events, rewards, and inspiration to
some of the world's most popular games, encouraging users to follow health, family, and community
best practices. The gaming industry can reach millions of individuals in hours by putting COVID-19
self-protection messages into games. In addition, the COVID-19 epidemic has resulted in a large
growth in online gaming and related activities (e.g., Esports, video games), which has increased the
number of times people gaze at the screen. WHO (Healthy at Home-Mental Health) has lately
advocated a balance of screen time and gaming. (Dilbaz, 2020). These guidelines and initiatives show
that WHO is keeping a close eye on the gaming industry's growth.
According to a combined analysis by Stream Elements and Arsenal.gg, global viewership of
game streams on Twitch and YouTube Gaming climbed by 10% and 15%, respectively,
during the previous week. There was a 66 percent increase in the consumption of gaming
content in Italy, which was subjected to a lengthy quarantine period. (Broughton, 2020)
According to third-party database SteamDB, the Steam, one of the most successful digital PC
game markets, reached new heights on Sunday, attracting 20,313,451 concurrent users to the
16-year-old service. Global Offensive, a Counter-Strike online first-person shooter game
released by Steam owner Valve in 2012, appears to have profited the most from increased
involvement, surpassing the previous high set last month. In April 2016, a new high was set
with a million. It is now one of the most watched e-sports competitions in history. Call of
Duty: Warzone, Activision Blizzard's latest free-to-play battle royale spinoff, debuted on PC,
Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on March 10 and has already surpassed the previous record of
10 million in three days set by Electronic Arts' last year's battle royale hit.(Perez, 2020).

This increase can be seen in the game industry all across the world. WinZo Games, an Indian
gaming startup, for example, experienced a threefold increase in user engagement and a 30%
increase in traffic. Furthermore, games with many players had a 35 percent greater utilization
rate. During the epidemic, this growth has resulted in a significant increase in the number of
online users. Similarly, Paytm First Games, an Indian mobile-based online gaming platform,
saw a nearly 200 percent growth in user base during the pandemic, with 75,000 new users.
(Kritika Premnath Amin, 2020). Telecom Italia, for example, recently stated that there has
been a "more than 70% rise in Internet traffic across our landline network, owing to the
significant contribution of online games like Fortnite." As a result, investments in the sector
are expected to produce favorable results in the near future. People went to spending that
could be eaten quickly and in small amounts since they couldn't foresee how long the
pandemic would last. Given the high cost of video games, home entertainment has become
even more appealing.
Methodology
Procedure

We conducted an online survey comprised of basic demographic

questions. The first question was if they played games before pandemic?
Then we asked if they started playing games during pandemic? If yes, then
we asked them why they started playing games during pandemic. Afterwards
we asked them for how long they played games every day? Lastly we asked
how playing games affected their life? It's possible that the impact will be good
or bad.' The poll URL was shared on various gaming related Facebook groups.
The goal of the study was to "research how people have been playing video
games during coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, and specifically if playing
games has had any effect on players' well-being," as stated at the start of the
survey.

For the purpose of the current project, several forms of evidence were examined in
order to find out if games helped people spend time during the pandemic. The
research of the project therefore consisted of two different methods:

1. Primary data collected via survey from 5th April, 2022 to 14th April, 2022. A total
of xy responses were collected. The form of the questionnaire is attached below in
xyz. The goal of the survey was to find the total number of people who started playing
games in pandemic and how it affected their mental health.

2. Secondary data collected from various academic papers and articles in order to
properly comprehend and portray our findings in an elaborate method.

Results
We conducted a survey to find out the number of people who started playing games
during the pandemic and to also find out the reason why they did so. We found the
following data from the survey. A total of 48 people responded in the survey and
amongst them 64.6% people started playing games during the pandemic. And when
asked why, 31.2% answered "I was stuck inside my home and had nothing better to
do". This shows how people got bored by staying inside their homes all the time and
how gaming helped them in this dire situation.

Discussion

From the graph above we can see that almost 67% respondent started
playing games during the pandemic. During the pandemic when
everyone had to stay locked indoors, most people turned to games to
relieve stress. Online games helped them to interact with their friends
and even new people, from inside the temporary prison they were living
in, all they needed was an internet connection. People could voice chat,
or text or even play games while using webcam so everyone could see
each other. This way even though they were thousands of miles away,
they could still talk like they are sitting next to each other.
In this graph we can see the reasons why the respondents started
playing games. 31.4% people said that they were stuck inside their
houses and they had nothing better to do while 19.6% people said that
they never got enough time to play games before the pandemic.
Moreover, 15.7% people said that they were introduced to new games
by their friends and 13.7% people said that they were bored. So we can
see that almost everyone was bored and didn't had anything good to do
as they were locked inside for a very long period of time so they turned
toward video games. From further research we also found out that
besides reducing stress video games also helped people to relax and take
their mind off from serious matters. It helped them escape to a virtual
world where they could be anything and do anything they wanted.

Conclusion

During the COVID-19 epidemic, playing video games improved players'

perceptions of their well-being. Games have provided a fun way to keep
in touch with friends and a stress-relieving and mentally engaging way
to avoid the affects of confinement. While previous research backs up
these findings, it's worth noting that the public's perception of video
games hasn't quite caught up with the evidence. If video games can
improve player well-being amid a global pandemic, perhaps more
should be done to increase awareness of their potential. It's not
unthinkable to urge that video games be included in official guidance on
how to deal with the effects of comparable lockdowns.

Limitations and Further Work

It's vital to note that these findings are based on people's perceptions of their own well-
being, and that the data must be self-reported. While self-report measures of subjective
well-being have been shown to be accurate (Diener, 2009), further research on the
association between video games and well-being may look into using physiological or
observational measurements. However, because this job was done under lockdown, it was
unable to have the social contact that such measures would necessitate.

The consequences of self-selection must also be considered. While the study's participants
were diverse in terms of demographics, they are probably certainly not typical of the
global gaming community. According to the Entertainment Software Association's 2020
poll, 41 percent of players in the United States are female, compared to 33 percent in the
United Kingdom (ESA, 2020). Furthermore, ethical considerations prevented participants
under the age of 15 from participating, thus they are not included in the analysis. The
highly favorable character of the results could also be due to self-selection bias: perhaps
those players who are most enthusiastic about playing video games are more likely to
complete a survey on their hobby.
Appendix
Reference :

Gough, C. (2020, 06 18). COVID-19: global video game and console increase as of March
2020. Statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109979/video-game-console-sales-
covid/

Broughton, M. (2020, 03 19). Tencent Revenue Up 21%; Video Game Usage Rises Amid
Covid19. TheGamingEconomy:
https://www.thegamingeconomy.com/2020/03/19/tencentrevenue-up-21-video-game-
usage-rises-amid-covid-19/

Perez, M. (2020, 03 16). Video Games Are Being Played At Record Levels As The Coronavirus
Keeps People Indoors. Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/03/16/videogames-are-being-played-at-
record-levels-as-the-coronavirus-keeps-peopleindoors/?sh=607fed0d57

Kritika Premnath Amin, M. D. (2020, 07 10). LinkSpringer. Online Gaming During the
COVID19 Pandemic in India: Strategies for Work-Life Balance:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11469-020-00358-1

Diener, E. (2009). Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities. In

Diener, E. (Ed.), Assessing well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (pp. 25-
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ESA. (2020). 2020 essential facts About the video game industry. Washington,
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