50% more gamers globally in 2020 amid pandemic: report

The number of people playing PC and console-based games jumped by nearly 50 percent globally this year as the new coronavirus pandemic has confined more people to their homes, an industry report showed Thursday.

Daily active users of PC and console games spiked 46 percent on-year during the January-May period, according to the report by game software developer Unity Technologies. The correspondent number for mobile gaming was a 17 percent increase.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak hit, there was already a 13 percent on-year increase in mobile app downloads, but the corresponding number skyrocketed as countries entered lockdowns in early March, according to the report.

"The reality is more people are gaming, and this captive audience is not only engaged for longer periods of time but also spending in game at rates typically seen around the holidays," Vice President Julie Shumaker said in a press release.

The report also showed that mobile gamers are installing more apps than ever, with the number of installs increasing by 84 percent on-year during the cited period.

Many local gaming companies have also enjoyed huge popularity globally, including Lineage 2M, a mobile massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by South Korean online game maker NCSOFT Corp.

The mobile version of the mega-hit game Lineage 2 was the most popular app in the world on Android platforms during the January-March period, according to separate industry data.

Local midsized online and mobile game publisher Com2uS Corp. also earlier said revenue from its mobile game Summoners War: Sky Arena reached a record high in April.

The mobile game, rolled out in 2014, has recorded cumulative sales of more than 2 trillion won ($1.6 billion) in 230 countries, company officials said, with more than 90 percent of sales coming from overseas. (Yonhap)