With no football to play or watch during the coronavirus shutdown, lovers of the beautiful game have understandably turned to a virtual experience to get their kicks.
And that has seen a whopping rise in players and fans turning to gaming consoles to get their football fix from games like Football Manager 20 and FIFA 20.
According to research by OGBL and Fans of the EPL, gamers playing Football Manager 20 through Steam has risen 119 per cent.
With a lack of live sport to watch on TV, games such as Football Manager 20 have experienced record playing numbers over the weekend.
With people advised to stay indoors due to the coronavirus outbreak, thousands of sports fans were left with nothing to do which has led to football fans looking elsewhere to watch live sport, resulting in huge spikes in sports games.
And with no live matches in the UK, Football Manager 20 experienced a surge in users on Sunday, with 180,838 people registered as playing online at that time.
With live football still on TV in February, there was a peak of 82,413 players online at once but since the advice has come to shut down the professional leagues and stay inside, the game has seen an average of 57,627 players online at any one time - a gain of 10,075 people from the average taken from February 2020 and a 21% increase.
When compared to previous years’ editions of the game, Football Manager 20 is far and away the best performing. FM19 saw a peak player count of 75,666 in August 2019, while FM18 peaked at 71,279 in January 2018, proving that the coronavirus has had an unprecedented effect on online sports gaming in the UK.
So with the lockdown set to continue for a few weeks yet, it looks like more people will be turning to the virtual world to keep football in their lives.
Find out more about Fans of the EPL surveys here: https://www.olbg.com/insights/fans-of-the-epl/how-do-fans-watch/
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