According to SEMRush study online games like PUBG, Minecraft, Fortnight Battle Royale, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, World of Warcraft, and Clash of Clans have seen increased traction during May – when the country was battling the coronavirus-driven lockdown.
Almost 22 lakh people played PUBG last month making it the most popular game in the country. Second came Minecraft that was played by 8.2 lakh people. About 8.5 lakh people played Fortnite, 1.5 lakh played League of Legends, 1.5 lakh played Counter-Strike, 1.1 lakh people picked World of Warcraft and another 1.1 chose Clash of Clans.
The related searches on games have also seen a sharp spike between January and April. Keywords related to gaming competitions that were most searched include Fortnite World Cup, Counter-Strike, Pokemon World Championships and League of Legends World Championship. Online searches for Mobile Premier League (MPL) saw a 406 per cent rise in the same period.
From January to April 2020, there was a 406 per cent increase in the number of searches on MPL, the study said.
Coming to mobile games, India’s favourites are PUBG Mobile, Subway Surfers, Ludo King, Garena Free Fire, Temple Run, Angry Birds, and Clash of Clans which were searched 10 lakh times, 8.2 lakh, 18 lakh, two lakh, 2.4 lakh, 1.6 lakh, and 1.1 lakh times respectively from January to April this year.
There is no denying that Indians are spending a significant amount of time during the coronavirus-driven lockdown in playing online games.
