With movement restrictions impacting many millions of people globally, the time spent on screen-based entertainment is increasing.
This chronologically-ordered list is an attempt to keep tabs on stories reflecting such behaviour so game developers can better understand how different platforms and titles are performing.
Hopefully it will also be useful for consumers as various games and game services become more accessible in terms of pricing.
8 June:
- Broadcaster Sky Sports will be using artificial crowd sounds from FIFA 2020 in its coverage when Premier League football - in stadia without any supportets - restarts next Wednesday.
28 May:
- Bandai Namco has cancelled support for all physical event as part of its 2020 World Tour Tournaments for Tekken, SoulCalibur and Dragon Ball Fighter.
27 May:
- Isle of Man TT Race 2020 is switching to the Isle of Man TT: Ride on the Edge 2 game, with pro racers and pro gamers partnering up into teams to achieve the best aggregate time. Games will be streamed on iomttraces.com from 6 June.
21 May:
- Kerbal Space Program 2 has been delayed to Fall 2021 due to the "unique challenges" arising from Covid-19.
19 May:
- Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts Dark Road has been delayed. Further details will be announced in early June.
11 May:
GungHo Online has pushed back the release of its Switch-bound arena brawler Ninjala to 24 June due to development delays caused by Covid-19 isolation.
4 May:
- Xbox Series X remains on schedule but Covid-19 could delay some launch window games.
- The second instalment of the ePremier League Invitational tournament - which sees professional footballers playing FIFA 20 - will run from 5 - 9 May.
1 May
- Fortnite World Cup 2020 competition is cancelled, replaced by more, smaller online events.
29 April:
- EA's FIFA 20 Ultimate Team's Team of the Season event is truncated to Team of the Season So Far, but will also highlight players who have been particularly active in community outreach.
22 April:
- Working from home has delayed the PC version of Death Stranding until 14 July.
20 April
- The ePremier League esports competition, which will pitch professional Premier League footballers head-to-head in EA Sports FIFA 2020 - Raheem Sterling plays Wilfried Zaha - kicks off with the final to be broadcast on Sky Sports on 25 April. The prize money will be donated to charity.
17 April:
- Electric racing series Formula E is launching its online ABB Formula E Race At Home Challenge, which will be broadcast by FOX Sports.
- Esports outfit Gfinity and betting partner Betway have created The eCricket Challenge which sees some of the biggest names in world cricket competing against each other in the video game Cricket 19. Shows will be broadcast on Willow TV.
16 April:
- The UEFA EURO 2020 DLC for Konami's eFootball PES 2020 has been delayed until further notice.
15 April:
- 20 European professional footballers will be playing EA FIFA 20 on Twitch as part of the EA Sports Stay and Play Cup.
14 April:
- Square Enix has delayed the next update for Final Fantasy 14 for around a month (now due June) due to issues arising from working from home and the knock on impact with its global development chain, including QA partners.
- Ubisoft has delayed the next update for For Honor (now due June) due to home working.
9 April:
- 16 female and 16 male tennis professionals including Andy Murray have signed up for charitable a virtual Madrid Open tennis competition using the game Tennis World Tour (which doesn't feature Andy Murray).
7 April:
- No new games will be certified in Japan until 8 May (at the earliest) as its licensing body - the CERO - can't operate from home.
6 April:
- The Finnish National Ice Hockey League season will be completed via NHL 20 and broadcast on national TV.
3 April:
- Naughty Dog's anticipated game The Last of Us II has almost completed its development, but its 29 May launch date has been delayed indefinitely by Coronavirus.
2 April:
- App Annie data shows the mobile games category saw the largest increase in downloads between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020, up 30%, on Google Play and Apple App Store. In China, spending on iOS games was up 15%.
1 April:
- 16 NBA players including Derrick Jones Jr. and Kevin Durant are going head-to-head in the Xbox version of NBA 2K's Players Tournament, which will be streamed on ESPN and ESPN2 from 3 April.
31 March:
- IronSource data highlights an increase in mobile game DAUs (China up 60%), an increase in mobile games installed via ads (up 25% in the US), higher player engagement with rewarded ads, but falling eCPMs for developers running in-game ads as some key advertisers slash back their campaigns.
- The release of Minecraft Dungeons and Wastelands 3 are delayed by some weeks due to the current situation.
30 March:
- Niantic announces adds more 'indoor' features to location-based games Pokemon Go, Ingress and Harry Potter:Wizards Unite.
29 March:
- 18 game companies and World Health Organisation combine for #PlayApartTogether campaign
27 March:
- How tabletop gaming company Exploding Kittens is dealing with exploding demand and decimated supply.
25 March:
- NASCAR follows F1's lead and launches the virtual eNASCAR iRacing Pro invitational Series, which is already being broadcast on Fox TV with 1 million viewers for the opening race.
24 March:
- Plague Inc adds 'Save the World mode' and donates $250,000 to Covid-19 response fund
- King offers unlimited play in its Saga games until 29 March
- Microsoft 'working diligently' to accommodate demand.
- Sony is throttling download speeds in Europe to ensure broadband networks can meet demand.
23 March:
- Steam breaks its concurrent user record again - 22 million
- "It remains to be seen which verticals see the most growth as the quarantine phase of the Coronavirus pandemic gives way to the recession phase. But as it stands now, gaming hasn’t been the primary beneficiary of this moment."
22 March:
- Gamestop (finally) shuts all stores to customers (but still allows curbside pickup)
- Covid-19 (and Doom Eternal) take down Xbox Live (again).
- FIFA 20-based Ultimate Quaran-team competition - featuring 128 professional teams - kicks off
- Formua One will run a virtual tournament replacing cancelled races using Codemasters' F1 PC game.
21 March:
- Jam City announces in-game specials and gifts across seven titles including Cookie Jam and Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery and Panda Pop over the weekend and coming week.
20 March:
- Overwatch League suspends the first weekend of its already regigged online season
- Unity provides three months of access to Unity Learn Premium
- Appflyer data says mobile games downloads are not up significantly, unlike apps like communications, finance, fitness and news.
- Gameloft launches an in-game gifts and free content giveaway across 35 of its titles.
- Razer is retooling to make surgical masks.
19 March:
- GameStop releases Doom Eternal a day early to avoid crowds
- Verizon reports gaming up 75% during peak hours, compared to 12% for streaming
- GameStop claims it's an 'essential retailer'
18 March:
- App Annie data says China's Covid-19 lockdown increased weekly mobile game downloads by 80%. The rise in South Korea was 35%. (There's also lots of interesting data about other mobile apps.)
17 March:
- Mobile streaming service Hatch Kids goes free until April. It's available in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway
- Cloud-based gaming service AirConsole offers 2 weeks free, using code "919 2020"
- Some indie developers are giving away their games via itch.io
- Nintendo's online service is currently down
16 March:
- Some further data on Plague Inc's performance in US and Italy
15 March:
- According to the unofficial SteamDB website, Steam hits a new all-time record for concurrent users with 20.3 million users during a 24-hour period
- Some users suffer from sign-in issues on Xbox Live, which takes a couple of hours to fix
- Real Betis and Sevilla played their scheduled derby via FIFA 2020 and Twitch
14 March
- Watford FC simulated its cancelled football game with Leicester City using Football Manager
February:
- Chinese government gets Apple to remove Plague Inc. from Chinese App Store
- Three Mahjong titles see usage spike in China
- Plague Inc. overtakes Minecraft as top paid app in the US