It’s common knowledge now that there has been a massive spike in video gaming activity around the world in recent months as the spread of the novel Coronavirus forced people indoors. Such was the surge that companies had to throttle download speeds to prevent the infrastructure from collapsing, but just how much of a growth has gaming content seen during the lockdowns in quantitative terms? An analytics company has the answer.
According to data shared by Tubular Labs (via Venture Beat), the week ending March 30th was YouTube’s best week ever for gaming content. Looking at numbers, gaming videos attracted 17 billion views – a 24 percent year-on-year growth. When it comes to livestreaming, Twitch remains the most popular platform, with its streamers attracting 869 million minutes of viewership in the weeks after the lockdowns kicked off. This amounted to a 20 percent spike compared to the weeks prior.
As for what type of content people are watching, multiplayer games are the popular choice. Minecraft, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto (in this order) attracted the highest number of viewers, but it’s Call of Duty that has seen the biggest surge over the last month or two. Tubular Labs revealed that there was a whopping 60 percent increase in Call of Duty videos uploaded to YouTube since the lockdowns began.
The aforementioned content is aided by digital gaming showcases and esports events as Covid-19 has forced organizers to cancel physical events.
[Source: Venture Beat]
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