South Korea's COVID-19 Response Mitigates PC Gaming Café Decline
The PC café market took a 25% hit at the peak of the coronavirus outbreak, but Interpret research shows the average daily hours played stabilizing even while some gamers have transitioned to PC gaming at home
May 20, 2020, 12:01 ET
LOS ANGELES, May 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Interpret's monthly tracking of the South Korean PC gaming café market has revealed a stabilization after the industry saw a 25% decline in March due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Interpret's data shows that total average daily PC gaming hours played at cafés in South Korea fell from 5.65 million in February to 4.38 million in March, directly coinciding with the peak of coronavirus cases in the nation. April told a different story, however, as the daily gaming hours at PC cafés were almost flat with March at 4.21 million while South Korea's confirmed COVID-19 monthly cases fell sharply. South Korea's proactive measures to contain the outbreak were universally praised, and the country's quick response might have saved the popular PC gaming café industry.
"While South Korea's PC café market fell from its pre-COVID level, the impact could have been far worse, especially in contrast to the outcome with PC gaming cafés in America, which are seeing zero business due to shelter-in-place restrictions," said Jesse Divnich, Interpret's VP of Research and Strategy. "A 25% haircut during a global pandemic is actually fairly encouraging, and data is already pointing to signs of recovery for South Korea's PC café market."
According to Danawa, a leader of online shopping services in the country, unit sales of assembled PCs jumped nearly 20% in Q1 2020. Additionally, when looking at year-over-year results in April, parts used to build PCs saw sales rise across the board, from 26% for keyboards to 34% for CPUs to 49% for RAM.
Media Contact
Jesse Divnich, VP of Research and Strategy
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About Interpret
Interpret is a global consumer insights agency designed to help companies at the intersection of media, technology, and entertainment navigate the future. We use quantitative and qualitative research to provide deeper insight into why consumers behave the way they do. Interpret is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Dallas, New York, London and China.
SOURCE Interpret LLC
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