Call of Duty: Warzone.

Newzoo: Shooter games are growing during coronavirus, but esports forecast takes a dip

Players are spending more time in games, and it turns out PC shooters have become more popular during the pandemic. But total esports revenue for 2020 will likely be lower than previously forecast, according to a couple of reports by market researcher Newzoo.

Shooters see a big boost

Shooters are taking off in quarantine.

Newzoo said today that, based on a March survey, shooter games have grown 40% on the PC since December. Other categories that have done well on the PC are gambling (up 36%), deck-building games (34%), arcade games (28%), platformers (25%), and battle royale (17%).

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.