During the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, gaming saw a significant increase in popularity as people looked for new forms of entertainment while spending more time at home. Data from Twitter shows that conversations around gaming increased by over 50% from the same period in 2019. In particular, the temporary shutdown of the popular game Fortnite in October 2020 led to a massive spike in discussion, with over 4 million tweets about the "Black Out" event in just 3 days. When Fortnite finally returned with its new Chapter 2 launch, the 36-hour livestream saw enormous viewership numbers online.

1. Gaming2020

2. 1
2
3
4
5
Introduction
Audience
Conversation
Connect with what’s happening
Inspiration

3. More looked to find new ways
of Entertainment
New Habits, New Routines

4. One of them was Gaming
Spending for some industries spiked drastically

5. COVID-19 COVID-19
Conversation Volume
During
11.9M
Before
7.5M
Source - Current period- 1 Jan 2020 to 31 Mar 2020 Previous period- 1 Jan 2019 to 31 Mar 2019 Twitter Internal,
conversation data around Gaming, 1 Jan 2020 - 31 Mar 2020, location: ID/MY/PH/SG/TH, retrieved Apr 2020.

6. 2.3M1.6M
COVID-19
During
COVID-19
Unique Authors
Source - Current period- 1 Jan 2020 to 31 Mar 2020 Previous period- 1 Jan 2019 to 31 Mar 2019 Twitter Internal,
conversation data around Gaming, 1 Jan 2020 - 31 Mar 2020, location: ID/MY/PH/SG/TH, retrieved Apr 2020.
Before

7. Avery
@Avxry
I woke up and just stared at the
black hole because life is
meaningless without Fortnite.
Fortnite is love, Fortnite is life
Twitter has always been
the platform for gaming
and Esports

8. The Black Out.
Chica
@TSM_Chica
So when is Fortnite coming
back?
Ninja
@Ninja
Well they didn’t call it the end
for nothing #Fortnite
timthetatman

9. The Black Out.
timthetatman
@timthetatman
Everyone trying to figure out
what the Fortnite numbers
mean

10. The Black Out. 4.1M Tweetsin 3 days
(+12x increase in conversation)
#1 Trend Worldwide

11. The Black Out. 36hr Livestream (Organic)
50.7M mins watched
42.8M views
12.8M Viewers

12. On the 15th October, much to the
relief of gamers worldwide, Fortnite
Chapter 2 launched and returned to
business as usual