Video games: Minecraft, Fortnite, and Twitch explode their records

The adventure and construction video game Minecraft, which benefits, like the entire industry, from social distancing linked to the pandemic, now has 126 million monthly active players worldwide.

We are honored to have sold more than 200 million copies of Minecraft at this stage,” also said on Monday, in a statement, Helen Chiang, director of Mojang studios, acquired in 2014 by Microsoft. The game – whose trademark pixelated appearance of characters and accessories – celebrated its 11th birthday on Sunday. More than 24 million copies have been sold since last year, a sign that Minecraft does not suffer too much from having abandoned an ambitious renovation project last summer, the “Super Duper Graphics Packs” announced with great noise during the E3 fair in 2017. The platform allows you to build a whole universe alone or online with other players.

Microsoft has increased its appeal to children and their parents with an educational version made available free of charge until the end of June. It has been downloaded over 50 million times since its launch in late March.

Video and mobile games, big winners in containment

Containment measures have exploded online uses, from social networks to entertainment platforms to e-commerce. But it looks like video games are the big winners in the pandemic. The Fortnite phenomenon (a game called “Battle Royale”, where you have to eliminate other players and remain the only survivor to win) exceeded 350 million players in early May. “In April, players spent more than 3.2 billion hours on the game,” Epic Games studios said on Twitter.

Mobile games are also breaking records, not to mention live video game streaming platforms, such as Twitch (Amazon) or YouTube Gaming. Between April, the number of hours watched on Twitch (including content other than games) jumped 48% in one month (100% in one year), to 1.7 billion, according to figures from the firm. specialist Arsenal.gg, published by StreamElements, a platform for broadcasters. Facebook Gaming reached 291 million hours viewed in April, or + 72% in one month, notably thanks to the launch of its gaming application and tournaments with celebrities.