Across many parts of the world we’re seeing lockdown measures from the coronavirus pandemic being eased or let off completely, but has also been hinted that many of the habits picked up during the past two or three months may become a mainstay for some – whilst many may seem like the usual suspects, some forms of entertainment have really taken off in this period of time.
Streamed content – This encompasses a whole range of different things – notably something many will have tried will be within the big movie and TV streaming services in Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ – all which have been performing extremely well in this period of time, at one point it had even been suggested that Netflix were having to throttle some quality choices in order to minimise bandwidth problems. Another area of streamed content that has been pushing numbers, however, has been within popular game streaming platform Twitch – the site has seen a record of new users register and begin streaming, alongside a growing number of viewer hours as streamers are staying logged on for longer hours to capitalise on the growing viewer base that comes with the lockdown. Another helpful aspect here is that with regular sporting events being cancelled, esports has been able to find a market to slip into, capturing the sporting fans too.
Mobile gaming – Another area seeing a huge increase has been within mobile gaming despite efforts to slow certain areas of growth – it had been suggested that there was a growing number of problem gamblers despite the introduction of the Gamstop initiative aimed at reducing participation options available, alongside a recent ban to advertising during the lockdown period – despite this a number of operators have chosen to register outside of the UK so players can continue enjoying these games, many can be found at Maximum Casinos, but are also not the only genre finding growth. Similar signs are also being seen in Battle Royale games as they continue to grow in popularity, as well as card games as the casual nature continues to be popular amongst many gamers.
Hobbyist activities – Somewhat expected by many, but hobby activities have found a huge growth in popularity over this same period of time – for many it has started with DIY as home improvement quickly became a good way for many to spend their time – but there has also been an increase is many picking up other hobby activities such as learning an instrument or learning a new skill – toward the start of the pandemic especially there had been a growing interest in books as sales rose by as much as 30% across some genres, particularly across childrens books.
Now that some level of normalcy is returning, many habits will likely return to normal too, it will be interesting in the coming months however to see how big a shift has occurred in certain sectors, and just how long that shift may remain in place once many return back to their regular day to day.