[kosei]

As someone who works in the video games industry, I can guarantee it is the lockdown. Stay at home orders align really closely with significant lifts in new players, increased hours played, and many other core metrics across the industry. And many games have seen significant lifts in their existing live service performance (not just new games).

[gambiting]

I also work in games and I can confirm this too - even our older games which had dwindling player numbers have gotten a massive increase in player numbers in the last 2 months. In some cases we've had to spool up our network infrastructure to levels higher than at launch, since the numbers are so high.

[SamuelAdams]

Also could be a large uptick in unemployment. Lots more people sitting at home with nothing to do. Games are on sale most the time and can be had for 10-15 dollars on steam. That's the same price as a case of beer in some places and you get far more entertainment hours out of a video game than a six pack.

[TAForObvReasons]

Uptick in console sales (far more expensive than $10-15) suggest money isn't the sole motivating factor. If it really were, you'd expect people to flock to netflix and other streaming services which are cheaper

[bentcorner]

At least personally part of it is that I also have more hours in the day due to no commute that I can spend on other things, including gaming.