In Italy, networks are groaning under the gaming rush. With schools closed and Italians in home quarantine, internet usage has surged by 70%. The culprits are suspected to be the battle royale games Fortnite and CoD: Warzone.
This is the situation: Italy is in lockdown due to the coronavirus. Schools and many shops are closed. Italians are urged to stay at home, under a home quarantine. This is putting a strain on the networks, as is now becoming known.
According to a report by Bloomberg, it is not working from home that is consuming so much bandwidth, but the extra hours in online games like Fortnite and Call of Duty.
As Bloomberg reports, traffic was even higher when the games were updated and millions of kids and gamers were downloading massive updates in the double-digit gigabyte range.
70% more load – network holds
This is what Telecom says: The head of the Italian Telecom, Luigi Gubitosi, said on Wednesday in a conversation with analysts:
We are noticing a 70% increase in internet traffic across our line network, with significant contributions from online games like Fortnite.
The head of the Italian Telecom
Can the network handle it? On Wednesday, there were reports in Italy that users of Telecom Italia had lost their connections, but that has subsided.
The company states that Telecom Italia’s network is running “perfectly” and is also coping with the increased volumes.
In China, player numbers doubled
Are there other examples of such a phenomenon? In the USA, there are apparently no signs that the coronavirus is affecting gaming behavior. It is reported that Verizon and AT&T have not noticed an increase.
However, data from China shows how the coronavirus impacted players there back in late January, who were under quarantine. During the Chinese holidays, they turned to their favorite online games in droves.
Viewer numbers for LoL, PUBG, and the mobile variants of the games practically doubled during this time compared to the previous year at the local Twitch-equivalent Douyu. The games themselves reached all-time record numbers of players.
The Chinese said at that time that they used games to
- pass the time while in quarantine
- take their minds off things
- not to be constantly confronted with the coronavirus and related news
In doing so, the Chinese preferred “light entertainment games”; battle royale games apparently seem to be popular worldwide to provide this distraction.
It currently seems that the coronavirus will accompany us for quite some time and will impact our daily lives. No matter how anxious or confident we felt about the virus a few days ago, it seems clear that each of us must deal with it.
- The game that deals with the outbreak of a pandemic is The Division.
- Chinese developers gifted their fellow countrymen who are under quarantine, a copy of their sex game, to help them stay indoors.
