The Impact of COVID-19 on the Video Game Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has had unexpected consequences for many industries. One of these industries is the video game industry. People increased their time at home, and they turned to play games to socialize and get away from stress. In this study, we aim to examine the effects of COVID-19 on the game industry. In the first part of our study, we discussed the social and psychological effects of games on people during the pandemic period. The share values of essential companies in the gaming industry such as Electronic Arts, Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, Capcom, and Take-Two and the number of daily active users and active players of Steam, the digital game platform with millions of users, were examined. We observed that there is a significant increase in the number of active players and users daily. The hypothesis that large companies in the gaming industry increased their share values were established, and this hypothesis was confirmed as a result of the hypothesis tests. We examined the pandemic period, the sector's growth, and the economic dimension of this increase. Due to the increase in the demand for video games, game companies' stock prices are also increasing.