We’re all stuck at home, we’re all sad and we all need something to distract us from the threat of a global pandemic. It’s old news at this point, you don’t need a refresher. While some learned folks turn to their bookshelves for entertainment and those with an eye for visual flair took up fun hobbies like painting and…well, let’s just say mosaic-ing, the majority of sane-minded people turned to video games to while away the boring hours stuck at home. It’s been one of the very few good parts about this lockdown. That, and not spending as much on petrol.

Turns out, folks that settled down behind their Switch or PlayStation to kill time have spent a lot of cash this year. Gee, we wonder why? Games are expensive and unless you’re the sort of person to play Pac-Man over and over again to try and beat Billy Mitchell’s world-record, odds are you need new games to keep you entertained.

All about the money

According to a report published by NPD Group, the gaming industry pulled in $1.2 billion. In June. In the USA alone.

That’s a ludicrous amount of money. It’s a 26% increase on last year’s spending and the most spent of gaming software, hardware and accessories since June 2009. Those numbers are so strong that NPD has estimated that 2020 will be the most lucrative and successful year for gaming in over a decade.

It doesn’t really take a rocket scientist to figure out why gaming figures have shot up this year. Given people are so desperately bored at home, one of the most engaging activities to enjoy is the escapism offered by video games. Helped along by massively successful titles such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons, The Last of Us Part II and Call of Duty: Warzone, 2020 has been a wildly successful year for games in both a commercial and critical sense. The scary thing is, we’re only halfway through. What do those numbers look like in December?

(Source: Engadget)