We're all more than aware of the chaos caused by the coronavirus outbreak – E3 is the latest major game event to be canceled as a result – but the spread of nature creates different conditions depending on your location.
Italy is one of the countries that has decided to close its schools in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. With children being left to take care of themselves at home, a sudden increase in online traffic has been reported with a new incentive to play online sports as one of the main contributors.
A Bloomberg report notes that Telecom Italia, Italy's largest telecommunications company, has seen a number of data pass through its network connection by more than one-third of people in the last two weeks. Games like Fortnite and Call of Duty highlighted in the report, as their large number of players spend greater bandwidth than adult business plans and conference calls.
"We have reported a 70% increase in Internet connectivity in our home network, with significant impact from online games such as Fortnite," said Telecom Italia manager Luigi Gubitosi.
Reportedly, traffic from games such as the one mentioned above can increase dramatically on days when updates are played live as active players all skip online to download the latest content at the same time.
Of course, the popularity of online gaming such as Fortnite can increase exponentially as more and more people are forced to stay home. Pokémon GO developer Niantic has introduced new updates to allow players to enjoy the game from home, rather than out and about.
