Gaming is the Entertainment of Choice During Coronavirus

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Best form of entertainment or what?

According to the New York Times (which is normally an untrustworthy FAKE NEWS outlet, but they're citing data from Earnest Research), there are many changes rippling throughout the United States economy due to social distancing and the coronavirus. That's obvious, but it's fun to put some data to it and see the specifics of that and what it means for videogames:

On their all-industries chart, gaming is just under Online Grocers as earning the biggest “more spending” percentage.

I'd say that the trends already favoured gaming growth pre-pandemic, with gaming rising to surpass the other forms of media & entertainment in a much faster time already. Videogames are ideal, though regrettably that's due to digital distribution unless you already have the games purchased before the pandemic. The data also suggests all brick-and-mortar retailers have massive declines, including electronics stores like Best Buy. I mean, I haven't gone there in a while. I don't know if they're even still open. (...Looking at their website... they're not.) The shipping industry is down as well, but maybe that makes sense, and maybe I'll write about that next week.

The fitness industry is down dramatically. Ring Fit Adventure isn't included in that, but it's also sold out everywhere and has been for quite some time now. In fact, the Nintendo Switch in general is sold out. (Screw the Lite.) You can buy games digitally all you want, but everything that requires a physical presence (hardware, peripheral-based games) seem to be facing severe shortages.

Lastly, the cruise industry is almost 90% down from 2019. I wonder why. The KoopaTV Loyalty Cruiser will majestically set sail—somewhere, even if the United States government will try to stop us—in a month, and all of the people who aren't doing the cruising scene are gonna be SO jealous of your great opportunity.

If you are still looking to clinch your ticket, just win the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program for the round ending at the end of April 2020. Not that hard. You're a gamer, getting all of this additional time and opportunity to hone your gaming skills. You can easily game the system and win.


Kamek promised a month ago that “[c]oming up soon, KoopaTV's staff members are collaborating on a special article on what you can do during your voluntary or government-mandated social distancing!” There hasn't been any such behind-the-scenes collaboration so far, but based on these stats, they'll probably involve a lot of videogames, and perhaps some music/video streaming. ...If that special article even ever happens.


Ludwig writes more about the implications of the shipping industry being down over here.