Video games are booming during COVID-19 lockdown as new and old players take a virtual escape

Consoles are selling out “within hours,” titles are in high demand, and friends are meeting on virtual islands in a new video game boom created by the coronavirus pandemic.

VIRTUAL island tours, dance-offs, war games and classic card showdowns are shaping up as the top way to entertain during the coronavirus pandemic as Aussies splash millions of dollars on video games and consoles.

The rush to play has even led to nationwide sellouts for a three-year-old games console and Aussie developers report a surprise sales boost.

Gaming experts say the rush to pick up a controller is all about escapism but predict that it will also create a new generation of unlikely players and expand the type of games played by everyone.

Research from the NPD Group found games sales, year on year, soared by 35 per cent in the US during March, as consumers spent $2.4 billion on gaming software, hardware and accessories.

Nintendo was the biggest winner from the gaming blitz, with a sales rush on its 2017 Switch console creating sell outs across Australia, a lucrative second-hand market, and massive demand for new titles like Animal Crossing and old favourites such as Just Dance.

Nintendo game Animal Crossing: New Horizons has captured the attention of many new game players. Picture: William WEST / AFP

Catch.com.au technology manager Bill Katis said the company had seen “Nintendo consoles sell out in a matter of hours” during the pandemic and a “massive uptick in sales of video games”.

“It’s safe to say that gaming has kept Australia entertained during lockdown,” he said.

Interactive Games and Entertainment Association chief executive Ron Curry said game sales spiked “as soon as the pandemic” made an impact in Australia, and a new survey of local games developers showed almost half reported increased or stable sales, and most planned no staff cutbacks.

Mr Curry said the boom was fuelled by veteran players seeking out new game genres and new players looking for fresh distractions.

The leisurely world of Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons has struck a chord with gamers around the world, many of them yearning for a virtual escape.Picture: Behrouz Mehri

“One of the real powers of games that they can take you somewhere else,” Mr Curry said. “You can be someone you want to be or somewhere you want to be and relieve that anxiety or boredom or stress that we get when we’re all sitting around looking at the walls. We’re all getting slammed with bad news and games give us a break.”

Mr Curry said games that let players chat or interact with friends and family were proving particularly popular.

“You might be a first-person shooter enthusiast but your family is into role-playing or playing a card game like Uno,” he said. “Now they’re sharing these gaming experiences online.”

Melbourne writer Alice Clarke said she typically played sports, racing and shooting games, but social isolation had encouraged her to try games she’d previously overlooked.

Alice Clarke says she is not just playing video games more often during the coronavirus pandemic but playing new styles of games she’d overlooked before. Picture: Nicki Connolly

While not a fan before, Ms Clarke said she and her wife “put 60 hours” into Super Mario Brothers U Deluxe to complete it and had become big fans of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in which players transform a deserted island.

“In the before times, games were my escape from people and a way of disconnecting so I’m surprised that in the after times it’s become my main way of connecting with my friends,” she said.

“One of my favourite things to do is to (video chat) with friends, visit each others’ virtual islands, and compliment each other on our houses. If you told me this last year I would have laughed at you.”

Newly minted player Clare Christensen from Brisbane may have also scoffed. She hadn’t played video games at all until last month, when her gamer husband handed her a Nintendo Switch with the Animal Crossing game.

Clare Christensen playing on a console at her home. Picture: Peter Wallis

She has now racked up more than 110 hours on her gaming island, and convinced a Sydney-based friend to play too.

“She visits me on my island now. With the restrictions at the moment, it’s nice to be able to have a chat,” she said.

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“And it’s fun to have an escape on my island; decorating, heading out into virtual nature, tending to flowers and planting trees. It’s a nice way to switch off and spend time in a safe environment.”

Other popular titles include an updated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which NBN Co says fuelled a major spike in internet traffic, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, FIFA 20, NBA 2K20, and the rising hit Moving Out, created by Australian developers SMG Studio and DevM Games.

And though some states were removing social restrictions, Mr Curry said the industry hoped some of the new gaming recruits would stick with their new hobby.

“I think there will be new players who realise how enjoyable it is, and how much enjoyment they can get from playing with someone else, whether that’s parents, grandparents, siblings or friends,” he said.