China is one of the worlds largest gaming hubs, especially in the mobile genre. The government had to adopt measures to control gaming as the country shows a problem of addiction and myopia. It is not surprising, however, that gaming is coming to the rescue of Chinese families under Coronavirus quarantine. The outbreak has forced a substantial number of families to readjust their daily routines to curb the viral spread.
App Store data from mobile app researcher Apptopia (via Bloomberg) shows the number of active users of mobile games surging. The data relates to games developed by two of China’s top games developers – Tencent Holdings Ltd and NetEase Inc. This results from the quarantine efforts laid out by the government in mainland China. The efforts aim to curb the person-to-person transmission of the virus. Consequently, the shares of both companies continued to rise despite a struggling domestic market.
The data depicts the percentage of active users for mobile titles such as Mahjong and Game For Peace, increased 109% and 44%, between January and February 2020. Other games by Tencent such as Honor of Kings, Happy Poker, and QQ Speed also saw a surge in usage by more than 20% in the two-month review period.
On the other hand, the game Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow produced by Netease has also seen a surge in daily active user activity since December, attaining a growth of 131%.
The spike in began in late January since Coronavirus quarantines kept people indoors during the Chinese New Year. Online entertainment and gaming are benefiting since people will be restricted to their homes.
TV viewership shows a surge
During this period, TV viewership also rose in numbers as more families spent time indoors out of fear. Analysts project that stocks tied to in-home entertainment could see more gains ahead. This is because more people are avoiding socializing and look for alternative ways of passing time within their homes.
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