Veronika Mikhailova

Interest in esports and online games has grown significantly in Russia against the background of coronavirus

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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 quarantine, Russians have been showing increasing interest in games and, in particular, in esports. This conclusion is made by industry representatives interviewed by Kommersant.

App2Top.ru I made a brief extract from the material of the publication.

Esports

Esports tournaments have switched to a full online format due to the bans of mass events. Even players within the same team train in self-isolation. They had to abandon the traditional team meetings before major tournaments.

According to Yaroslav Meshalkin, ESforce Director of Strategic Communications, esports quickly adjusted to the new conditions “due to its initial focus on online.” And now it is in a more advantageous position than traditional sports disciplines.

The esports niche has indeed reached record levels. For example:

  • The broadcast of the Continental League on League of Legends was watched by 80 thousand viewers, according to the Russian representative office of Riot Games;
  • the authors of Warface doubled the number of competitions in March and April. They were attended by 70 thousand people in each of these months.

The speakers interviewed by the newspaper are confident that interest in esports will continue to grow during the pandemic. But “tournaments on the remote” is hardly a stable trend. It is expected that with the end of the pandemic, the classic offline competition mode will return, that is, stadiums and thousands of fans.

Online Games

Metrics for online games are also growing, as can be seen from the example of MY.GAMES projects.

  • Both DAU and online at Warface in the territory of the Russian Federation have jumped by more than 30% since the beginning of the pandemic. (Note that in Europe, the game’s DAU increased by 45% in March.)
  • Skyforge‘s DAU and online indicators have increased by more than 50%.
  • At LOST ARK — by 30%.

There are several reasons: the departure of students and students to the remote; the release of planned spring updates; as well as the fact that games allow people to actively communicate and spend time with each other in quarantine.

Due to the significant growth of the audience, the revenue of such projects has also increased. For example, the revenue of the MY.GAMES brand in March was 20% higher in annual terms.

It is also noted that streamers have also begun to earn more in Russia. Their incomes grew the very first: since January they have been donating 40% more often, and in April the growth may be another 35%.

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