As people start to stay indoors due to the coronavirus threat, forms of entertainment such as movies and video games are on an upsurge. Netflix usage has gone up as well as digital sales of various gaming titles for multiple platforms. Thanks to online multiplayer features, individuals no longer need to meet up in real life to interact with their friends or other players. Over the weekend, Valve's Steam Database hinted that a new milestone was approaching. Eventually, it did when the system recorded a little over 20 million users concurrently online.

AS detailed by GamesRadar+, out of the total number of people listed by the servers, 6.2 million were actively engaged in different games. This reportedly breaks the older record by 200,000 users. The top three titles that were highlighted include "Rainbow Six Siege," "DOTA 2," and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive." The rest is distributed among several titles available on Steam.

Reports noted that the upward trend began in January when reports of COVID-19 infections likewise rose. Contributing to the data were mostly gamers in China who were allegedly staying home to avoid the spread of the virus. Then, just a month after, another wave of concurrent players peaked at 18,801,944 to break the 2018 record set by Steam. Now, the highest recorded number stands at approximately 20,313,451.

However, experts suspect that some of these users might have just left their browsers active in idle while busy with something else. Hence, others claim it could not compare to the milestone set in 2018. While the total number was smaller at just close to 19 million, 7.2 million of these were actively participating in games. Others also attribute the rise to Activision's "Call of Duty: Warzone" -- a free-to-play battle royale shooter that launched last week.

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The coronavirus outbreak does not show any signs of going away soon. Hence, governments all over the world are enforcing measures to control the spread of the virus. Unless absolutely necessary, it is recommended that people stay home to minimise the risk of transmission. It appears that all major events scheduled for 2020 are all cancelled while some are about to be. In fact, gamers can even contribute their computer's processing power to help researchers come up with a vaccine or cure.

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