According to an article in The Economist, Verizon reported a 75 percent increase in home video game internet traffic during the first week of the coronavirus shutdown. NPR, furthermore, said: “Even before the crisis, more than 67 percent of Americans played (consumer/home) video games, while consumers worldwide were pouring $120 billion into gaming each year, roughly three times what they spend at the box office and four times what they spend on recorded music.” This sounds like a page out of the coin-op video game playbook from the boom days, doesn’t it?

Right now, the steady growth on internet entertainment is being fueled by competitive, rather than solo, play, said Anthony Palumbi in the Washington Post.

Thanks to the internet, players can compete against each other, even if one lives in Paducah and the other in Timbuktu. “We gamers have a lot to teach the rest of the country about how to survive the current pandemic,” he added.