Coronavirus spikes digital game earnings to historic $10 billion

The global games market earns a record-breaking $10 million from digital sales in March thanks to coronavirus quarantines.

The COVID-19 lockdowns have tremendously boosting the games industry, especially digital. The lockdowns have created a vacuum that consumers are filling with activities and games. The demand is soaring, but supply is scarce: now that most of the stores have shut down, consumers are choosing to buy games directly from digital storefronts. The result is a massive spike in monthly earnings for March 2020.

According to SuperData's latest report, the global gaming market generated a new all-time high of $10 billion from digital in March 2020. This was driven by the success of heavy-hitters like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which handily dominated the console charts, Doom Eternal, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Overall revenues are up 11% year-over-year from the $9 billion earned in March 2020.

Mobile absolutely dominated monthly earnings (as it almost always does) with $5.7 billion, accounting for 57% of total revenues for March 2020. Consoles were in second place with $1.5 billion, up a strong 64% over February, and PC ranks in at third place with $363 million earned in March 2020, up a mighty 56% from February.

The trend is pretty clear. The longer consumers are forced to stay inside, the more digital games they'll buy. This is a boon for storefront owners like Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Valve, and we're eager to see how April's figures compare to March's. We expect the earnings to spike even higher.