As the coronavirus forces people to forgo hanging out in person, social gaming is gaining in popularity.
According to report by NPR, social games are becoming the new way people hang out, providing interaction without the risk of infection. One such example is Discord, a communication platform popular with gamers that has seen a 200% increase in signups in the last week.
Even games that are normally played in person are seeing growth, as families stay home. Jackbox Games CEO Mike Bilder told NPR that their traffic last weekend was “comparable to Thanksgiving weekend, which is a very busy time of year for us. Across the board we’ve just seen a lot of additional activity over a typical weekend.” The company has also released a guide to help people adapt and play their games remotely.
Similarly, Facebook recently announced a closed beta of its Horizon virtual reality environment, an environment designed to allow users to visit, interact, cooperate on tasks, compete with each other and more. As the pandemic continues to progress, it’s a safe bet social games and virtual reality will only continue growing in popularity.