The DeanBeat: What we’ve learned about pandemic gaming

The second-quarter earnings results from major game companies over the past two weeks have taught us more about how gamers are responding to the pandemic. The big question is whether the gains are temporary or permanent, as that will determine how much bigger the $159 billion game industry will become.

We won’t know exactly for a while, but we have more evidence for both arguments with the Q2 calendar financial results that came in from Electronic Arts (which gained tens of millions new players in Q2), Activision Blizzard (which gained 21 million players in the quarter), Take-Two Interactive (whose 7-year-old game Grand Theft Auto V sold 5 million copies in the quarter), and Zynga (which bumped its expectations upward for the year by $360 million).