Plague Inc. is an eight-year-old real-time strategy game where players create and evolve a pathogen to destroy the world with a deadly plague. The game has lately updated its record for the simultaneous number of players on Steam. Over the past three days, game attendance rates have quadrupled. According to Steam Charts, in the last few days, 17,889 people were playing the game at the same time. Last week’s figure was 4.4 thousand people.
Due to very high player numbers on January 24, the game's site went offline.
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/pA6CUS7nJI pic.twitter.com/StXP6aemDe
— Plague Inc. / Rebel Inc. (@NdemicCreations) January 24, 2020
Ndemic notes that "whenever there is an outbreak of disease, we see an increase in players, as people seek to find out more about how diseases spread and to understand the complexities of viral outbreaks."
At the same time, players should remember that Plague Inc. is just a game, and they should learn about coronavirus from official information sources.
It is not the first time Plague Inc. is having benefits from real-world epidemic news. In 2014, during the Ebola epidemic, the game was also at its peak, and Ndemic contributed to the global healthcare charity.
By the way, currently, Plague Inc. comes with a 60% discount on Steam – the game can be purchased for $0,99.
Let us recall that last week, Plague Inc. was ranked the first among popular paid iOS apps in China. And the profit from the game increased by 275%. The game itself, created by the British company Ndemic Creations, was released on iOS and Android in 2012. Later it was ported to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
