Wuhan coronavirus leads to massive sales spike for Plague Inc.
This is not the first time a global outbreak has led to a surge in interest for the strategy simulation game.
With the death toll for the Wuhan Coronavirus now climbing above 100, and over 3,000 people infected worldwide, strategy pandemic-simulation game, Plague Inc. has seen a meteoric rise up theapp store charts.
The game has also seen a massive increase in player activity on Steam in the last month, with a 125% increase in January.
This isn’t the first time Plague Inc’s popularity has coincided with a viral outbreak.
In 2015, when the Brazilian Zika virus spread around the world, the game saw a massive 144% increase in player activity on Steam.
The cholera outbreak of October 2016 also coincided with a 134% spike in player activity.
The Kivu Ebola epidemic of 2018 saw a 60% increase in activity.
With the surge in interest in the game, Plague Inc. developers, NdemicCreations have issued a statement specifically telling players that the game “is not a scientific model” and that players should get their information about the virus from local and global health authorities.
Our website is currently offline due to very high player numbers. I’m copying our statement on the coronavirus outbreak here so people can still see it.https://t.co/pA6CUS7nJIpic.twitter.com/StXP6aemDe
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