Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite and the games in the pandemic

Whether from giants already very famous in years before 2020 or through titles used more widely from last year, electronic entertainment has been occupying an even greater space in people's entertainment time. We are following an aggressive growth of games in the pandemic. Roblox, Among Us e Fall Guys joined extremely popular titles like Fortnite, Free Fire, GTA e Call of Duty in a booming season for online gambling.

In the same vein, the game industry for dedicated consoles, even when oriented towards single-player experiences, has accumulated records and great successes in the face of a more uncertain calendar of publications. The growth of GamePass da Microsoft, the resounding success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the more than solid sales performance of securities such as The Last of Us part II e Ghost of Tsushima, point to a strengthening of the activity considering an even more general scope. In Brazil, the financial transactions carried out on the main platforms grew 140% in 2020, compared to 2019.

When looking at practices on mobile devices, the values ​​are impressive; is expected for 2021 a movement of $120 billion of player spending on video games, according to the App Annie, 62% of all revenue generated from App Store transactions comes from gaming.

No YouTube, the area dedicated to video games saw great growth last year, generating 100 billion hours of content watched on the platform. The five most watched games were: Minecraft (201 billion views), Roblox (75 billion), Free Fire (72 billion), Grand Theft Auto (70 billion) and Fortnite (67 billion).

What is the real impact of the pandemic on the video game industry?

The new coronavirus pandemic continues to be a striking reality, especially in Brazil, and activities are far from normal in previous periods. while about 80% of the Japanese population is against the Olympics happen in 2021, we have normalized a death rate above 2 daily deaths in our country. The real impact of the pandemic cycle will still be analyzed more accurately in the coming years, and consequently its relationship with specific industries and cultural activities.

But there are already some studies and analyzes pointing to such an impact. O report made by Unity, a platform and graphics engine company for creating games, animations, etc., points to a 46% increase in daily active users in HD games (through streaming, PCs or dedicated consoles) and 17% of users on mobile devices.

The same report points to a 24% increase in revenue through micro-transactions, and also to an unprecedented growth in the number of video game advertisements for mobile phones and tablets: in the weeks following March 8, 2020, there was an increase of 57%.

The numbers are also strong for the big three in the console market. The service Game Pass jumped from 10 million subscribers in April 2020 to 18 million in January 2021. In fiscal report for the period between April 2020 and March 2021, Nintendo reported an increase of about 37% in sales of consoles and 36% in sales of software. Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold about 32 million copies so far, of which 11 million occurred in the fiscal period from 2019 to 2020, counting days of sale only.

The annual report of the Sony also pointed to a record year in the PlayStation division, with a collection of around 24 billion dollars in the period. The number of service subscribers PlayStation Plus achieved a growth of 15%. the launch of PlayStation 5 it also achieved some records, such as the company's fastest-selling console in the United States.

If from a business perspective things are going well even in the midst of chaos, the impact on video game workers will still be better scrutinized and investigated over the years. In an industry plagued by poor work and management practices, going from harassing environments with the connivance of top executives to the most publicized and multiple cases of crunch in development, some indicators are already beginning to appear.

Em recent survey of nearly 2500 industry professionals carried out by the GDC (Game Developers Conference), nearly 40% did not notice major differences in their work practices. Even working from home, deadlines remain, as does the need to work overtime. It should be noted that this study also includes independent developers, freelancers or even interns, and that the impact of work in large studios will most likely be better explored in future reports by journalists connected to the industry, such as, for example, Jason Schreier.

Minecraft, Free Fire, Fortnite and the growth of those who were never small

The data collected and presented so far make clear the colossal growth of the industry, and it is natural to consider that popular games before the new coronavirus pandemic also obtained an increase in the number of players and, therefore, revenue. Minecraft remains the dynamo of the channels of the YouTubeAnd number of active users also saw a substantial increase. Between 2019 and 2021 there was a jump from 91 million to 140 million, with an average of 130 million players each month in 2020.

PUBG mobile e Free Fire they were Battle Royale for mobile devices most profitable in the first quarter of 2021. Driven by its version published in China, Game For Peace, PUBG raised $741 million, while Free Fire, in growth, reached 255 million.

Comprehensive in Brazilian peripheries and adopted as hobby by famous Funk MCs, Free Fire has been a phenomenon in Brazil, having its league reformulated in the country in 2020 in a movement to consolidate the game as eSports, both here and around the globe.

cultural phenomenon, Fortnite has received content from big names in pop culture and even sports: Neymar was recently the subject, and the next step comes from content from the American basketball league, the NBA. Season 15's closing event saw over XNUMX million active users, and connecting with such big names and brands around the world points to a huge fundraiser; already partially confirmed, including from documentation presented in the context of the dispute between Epic e Apple .

Published in 2015 in Chinese market, Honor of Kings is the most popular game in the world, at least in number of active users. Created as a kind of unofficial version of League of Legends for mobile devices, the title became popular in the country. Last year the game raised $2.6 billion from in-app transactions.

Grand Theft Auto, in turn, continues to surprise. While GTA V sold over 10 million copies since May last year, its Online counterpart has increased its revenue by 28%, generating the game's best year since launch. There was space for the common servers, but also for those dedicated to the Role play (role-playing space). There were even several events during the pandemic, even reaching Carnival celebrations.

Roblox and Among Us – the tree of “old” games

Dear among children and teenagers, Roblox goes unnoticed, or as a recent release for the unsuspecting, given its growing popularity in the last cycle. It is, however, a title published in 2006. Receiving constant updates over the years, the creation platform has gone through a fruitful moment since the pandemic.

With a new system of hangout published in July 2020 and an increase in the number of players, the with which is intended to be more of an experience center than a game itself, also achieved records, in addition to more expression in the scenario, with a 82% growth in revenue.

Focused on users' game creations, Roblox was the second most watched game in the YouTube in 2020, in addition to being featured in moments of great exposure, such as when a Big Brother Brasil simulator within the platform reached 20 million visits.

The success of creative games on the platforms of streaming still raises the question of gameplay emerging as the one that generates more viewer interest: Minecraft e Roblox take the lead, followed by titles connected to the spectrum of competition and more open game systems.

Other “sleeper hit” well remembered during the COVID-19 pandemic is Among Us. Not as popular as some of the other titles mentioned here, the game of adversarial deception and imposter detection was embraced in 2020, going, for example, from 6 active users on Steam in April 2020 to 438 thousand in October of the same year on the platform.

Published in 2018, the game gained its greatest popularity only in the second half of 2020, during the pandemic. An electronic form of analog games, the title managed to interest many people and serve as a meeting point for friends.

Fall Guys, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the new ones players

In addition to titles already on the market, many new electronic games were launched and marketed from March 2020. Series born in 2001 in the Japanese market, Animal Crossing had its revelation to the general public precisely in the first month of the pandemic on a global scale. Since the previous year, their promotional material has focused on the idea of ​​an “island vacation getaway”. It is not difficult to connect such an idea to a perspective of relaxation within a framework of crisis in human history.

In addition, the game also has a good online connection factor that goes from welcoming your friends to your island, to creating games and games from the players' own imagination, mediated, of course, by the game's systems and mechanics. It quickly became a popular phenomenon: meetings and interviews took place through the game, and a good handful of celebrities claimed to be playing the game. New Horizons.

Fall Guys, published in February 2020, also gained rapid popularity: it became the most downloaded title in the service's history. PlayStation Plus, in addition to having sold 11 million copies in its PC version. Sympathetic and potentially unnerving, the game brings a series of challenges worthy of the late “Olympics of Faustão” in which 60 players run, fuck and fight in different scenarios for the crown to the winner.

Alongside these, even other launches more focused on single-player campaigns had excellent sales performance. Take, for example, the winner of the The Game Awards 2020, The Last Of Us Part II, which became the third best-selling game of the year in US territory.

Online games, mobile games, creative platforms, eSports, titles aimed at single-player campaigns, game subscription services, apparently much of the games industry grew dramatically during the period, still unfinished, of the new coronavirus pandemic. We will know better, in the future, the real impact of the period, both from the business point of view, as well as the works and, above all, in labor relations.

Is that you? Tell us in the comments which games you played the most in the period.

Pig iron: AppAnnie, Washington Post, GamesIndustry, Unity, YouTube.