Coronavius lockdown accelerates online gaming

PUBG among the most played

Dharshana Kathiresan, INN/Chennai, @Infodeaofficial 

During the extreme times of the Covid-19 pandemic, people tend to explore the virtual world in order to connect and socialize with their friends and loved ones.

One such example is engaging in online gaming, which has appreciably increased during the lockdown. This indeed becomes tremendously valuable for online gaming platforms and they can make a fortune out of it.

Especially, the games with survival scenarios, group existence, and tons of action are preferred more by people.

The impact of the virtual world is very vast and games are now the new platform of ‘computerized communication’ for people around the globe.

Online gaming, a large proportion of technological advance, especially intense among the younger minds, is one of the major ways opted to spend time by the people who are under lockdown.

These channels keep the people (who are restricted to their houses) entertained and help them in bonding with their friends and family, comforting each other, which is quite hard during this period of social distancing.

According to a recent report, titled ‘Gaming – India Story’, published by Maple Capital Advisors on Tuesday, the Indian gaming industry is currently valued at USD 930 million and is expected to grow at 41 percent annually. By 2024, the gaming industry in India is set to be valued at USD 3,750 million.

Currently, there are more than 400 gaming startups in India. The report also noted that there is increasing traction towards multiplayer games that has been observed after the arrival of PUBG in India.

The Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds or popularly known as PUBG, is one of the top online, multiplayer battle royale games in the world and it is profoundly famous in our country.

By 2019, the console and PC versions of the game have sold over 60 million copies, and the PUBG Mobile version has crossed over 600 million downloads.

PUBG Corporation and several other real-money gaming platforms have run PUBG tournaments. They have also introduced in-game tools to help in broadcasting the game for spectators.

PUBG Mobile has gained immense popularity since its launch. The game is available on both Android and iOS platforms.

This is a player versus player shooter game in which up to one hundred players fight in a battle royale, to remain the last alive. Players can choose to enter the match solo, duo, or with a team of four people. The last person or team alive wins the match.

One does not get bored of this game as it has multiple challenges, modes, maps and weaponry to make it exciting for the users. If one’s phone does not meet the minimum requirements of the game, they can also install the PUBG Mobile Lite.

According to a report published on May 13, by Pandaily, the PUBG Mobile app collected $92.8 million in April, marking its most profitable month since its launch in March 2017 and the top-grossing title among Chinese gaming companies in overseas markets for April.

Also, in March 2020, PUBG Mobile released its season 12 update, increasing the overseas revenue for the month to $91.0 million.

Even during the coronavirus pandemic, the multiplayer battle game was among the top 10 downloaded applications on the Google Play Store, according to App Annie.

“I play PUBG for at least 6 hours a day. Earlier my gang of friends used to gather in my yard and we played the game. But during the lockdown, we are just able to team up and play from each other’s home.

It actually helps me to be with my people, even though I can’t meet them, and it’s definitely so much fun,” said Kannan, who is a final year college student in Chennai and an ardent fan of the game.

However, there were cases where this game was banned in some countries for allegedly being harmful and addictive to younger players.

In China, the PUBG mobile version is Peacekeeper Elite. This adaption has removed some content that could be regarded as too violent and added some patriotic elements when compared to its overseas version.

In our country, there were a few cases of suicide and multiple health issues, caused as a result of the game’s addiction among youngsters. In the state of Telangana and Bangalore, school kids have undergone treatment for PUBG addiction.

Parenting experts have also warned that game addicts show symptoms like withdrawal from social interaction, obesity, violent thoughts, and assaulting behavior.