Chinese Citizens Seek Comfort in Mobile Games While They Stay At Home To Avoid Coronavirus

Christine Roger, Tech Times 14 February 2020, 10:02 pm

Millions are pursuing mobile games as everyone tries to avoid getting exposed to the coronavirus or as been named "COVID-19."

According to Sensor Tower, China's App Store now has 45% more first-time installs of games compared to the same period in 2019, and spending on gaming applications reached up to 23% as mobile gaming looms over China amid coronavirus outbreak. Some players, young adults, and even parents are turning to mobile games to kill off time they spend just sitting at home waiting for good news to arise. This news would indefinitely make them spend more money as they become invested in these popular games such as Game for Change, Honor of Kings, and Brain Out, to name a few of these top-performing gaming applications.

(Photo : Screenshot from: CNBC Official Website)

Education and Business apps are rising as well

Not only are Mobile Games dominating China, but as citizens stay home from school and work, educational apps for children and teens, and business apps for company owners and employees, are also rising on top of the free application charts. Parents are now using these apps to try and help their children learn new things or at least what they have been missing from school. Even working from home, Chinese employees expected to do as much work as they possibly can, making working apps like WeChat, Tencent Conference, and DingTalk have their numbers grow as well over the last month.

Travel app usage has gone down

As gaming, educational, and business apps are currently rising, travel apps, however, have been contracting, bringing the numbers down to an unusually massive decline of 36%. Although, during the Chinese New Year celebration, travel apps did skyrocket as expected, eventually fell on Jan. 25. Contributing to this is the constant cancellation of flights from different countries to China, and vice versa, as travelers try to avoid the outbreak, making these travel apps much less of use. Another contributing factor is the travel restrictions that have been implemented over the month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC. They have expanded screenings for the said virus to an additional 15 ports of entry, bringing it all up to 20 for the count. These screenings are all happening at five different U.S airports such as JFK in New York City, San Francisco International, Los Angeles International, Hartsfield Jackson International in Atlanta, and O'Hare in Chicago.

(Photo : Screenshot from: CTV News Vancouver Island Official Website)

As for passengers and travelers arriving in the United States from China, several of these screenings will involve questionnaires being handed out to everyone, asking about information on their trip, symptoms that they might have or experiencing, and some general contact information. Infrared thermometers are also being used by officials at viral screenings to scan each passenger.