The video game industry was substantially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as most industries were. The restrictions to social events and movement globally led to a sudden interest in gaming worldwide. This was credited with bolstering the success of many games, particularly games that launched in the March 2020 window, when gatherings were first restricted in many countries. A "gold rush" of video game acquisitions and investment ensued, marked by multi-billion dollar studio deals such as Microsoft's $75bn acquisition of Activision. However, this would prove unsustainable as the rapid pandemic-era growth was temporary. Major layoffs occurred when restrictions began to ease in 2022, and it was clear that the rapid industry expansion would not be sustained.

The industry did experience some direct negative effects in the short term also. Many games were delayed by logistical complications during the transition to remote working. Social gathering restrictions had a major impact on in-person events- notably the discontinuation of E3. It also greatly affected Esports, which were more reliant on in-person events than the rest of the industry. The launch of the ninth generation of consoles took place as planned in late 2020, but was marred by stock availability from supply chain issues until 2023.

Overview In contrast to many other economic sectors that were drastically affected by the pandemic restrictions, the video game industry was more resilient. Most video game developers, publishers, and operators were able to maintain operations with employees remote working to sustain game development and digital releases, though some productivity issues arose. With many people globally at home and unable to work, online gaming observed record numbers of players during the pandemic as a popular activity to counter physical distancing for society, a practice recommended by the World Health Organization that helped boost revenues for many companies in the gaming industry. However, a 2025 meta-analysis of self-reported player data found that the overall increase in gaming time compared with pre-pandemic levels was small, with the largest surge occurring in the second quarter of 2020 and being more pronounced in Europe than in Asia.

There were negative impacts on the industry, notably with major trade events cancelled or postponed which may have impacted relationships between the smaller developers and publishers. This has particularly impacted indie developers who typically use these events for face-to-face meetings with potential partners to gain funding and publishing support, and caused them to have to delay or cancel projects. Many esport leagues had to alter plans for their games, transitioning from live events to remote play or cancellation altogether. Portions of the sector that relied on physical products, such as retail stores and peripheral makers, as well as those dependent on in-person activities such as quality assurance through playtesting, ratings evaluation, and marketing, also struggled with global stay-at-home orders.

As the origin of the pandemic, China was expected to limit the supply chains for electronics. It did not impact plans for Microsoft and Sony to release the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 respectively in fall 2020, though both consoles suffered from stock availability issues early on.

Industry events Many trade events and expositions for the industry were cancelled or postponed due to bans against public gatherings during the pandemic. The pandemic led to some longer term changes in the way the industry handled public outreach, such as increasing its reliance on digital marketing. The increasing importance of Nintendo Direct streams are an example of this.

Discontinued Electronic Entertainment Expo, also known as E3, was discontinued as a result of the pandemic. E3 2020 was cancelled by March that year. Additional events were arranged to substitute for the trade event, such as Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest. E3 2021 was initially scheduled as normal as an in-person event with virtual elements, but the in-person event was cancelled in February 2021 in favor of a digital event only. The event was then cancelled two more times before ultimately being discontinued permanently in December 2023. Minecon was last held in 2016 but scheduled to return in 2020 as "Minecraft Festival". After several delays the in-person version was discontinued, continuing only via the virtual Minecraft Live track. There were no further live Minecon events, though Minecraft was present at TwitchCon 2026. PAX Dev was a developer-focused PAX event circuit which ran until 2019. It was merged into the other PAX events after the pandemic, with the name applied to various talks and so forth. PAX South launched in 2015 but had failed to expand as the other regional variants did; it was formally discontinued during the pandemic. Comic-Con Russia and gaming sub-event IgroMir were previously held together. IgroMir 2020 and 2021 were cancelled, and the organisers faced a lawsuit over non-refunded fees. The organisers then "went silent" following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, meaning that the event was not held again after 2019. The name was revived by new organisers with a new venue from 2025.

Delayed or cancelled

The 2020 Vancouver Retro Gaming Expo in New Westminster was postponed until 25 June 2022. The Taipei Game Show, planned from 6–9 February 2020, was postponed until 25–28 June 2020, but was cancelled in March 2020 due to pandemic's escalation. The Mobile World Congress, to have been held in Barcelona, Spain, in March 2020 was cancelled as several of the China-based vendors had to cancel plans. The 16th British Academy Games Awards, normally presented at a ceremony in London, were moved to a live streamed event due to concerns over the pandemic. Paris Games Week, planned for 23–27 October 2020, was cancelled. Insomnia66, set to take place 10–13 April 2020 at the NEC, Birmingham was cancelled in March 2020 COMPUTEX Taipei 2020, planned for 2–6 June 2020, was postponed to 28–30 September 2020, but was cancelled in June 2020. The 2020 BlizzCon was cancelled. Brasil Game Show 2020, which was planned for 8–12 October 2020, was cancelled. South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, was cancelled, though the SXSW Gaming Awards were still awarded through an online announcement in March 2020. Emerald City Comic Con planned for Seattle, Washington, in March was cancelled. TwitchCon Europe and TwitchCon US were cancelled. The 25th QuakeCon event, planned for Dallas, Texas in August, was cancelled. San Diego Comic-Con, planned for July 2020, was cancelled. The 17th annual Touhou Project dōjinshi convention (Reitaisai) planned in Tokyo, Japan, first planned on 22 March 2020, was postponed until 17 May, before being cancelled on 12 April, five days following the initial announcement of a state of emergency made by the Japanese government. Comiket 98, a dōjinshi convention held in Japan, was cancelled. PAX West 2020, originally scheduled for 4–7 September 2020 and PAX Australia 2020, originally scheduled for 9–11 October 2020, collaborated with EGX to host PAX Online x EGX Digital, which was held 12–20 September 2020. The 2021 Japanese Amusement Expo (JAEPO) was cancelled in a 1 October 2020 announcement. Super MAGFest 2021 was initially planned to be made virtual, but also cancelled. Gamescom Asia's inaugural event was postponed to 2021.

Reduced in scope or made virtual Several vendors withdrew or scaled plans back to present at PAX East in Boston at the end of February 2020, including Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Capcom, CD Projekt, and PUBG Corporation. Several companies pulled out from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco in March 2020, forcing the organizers to postpone the show to later in the year. However, the event organizers devised a scheme to run the GDC as a virtual conference following a similar schedule across the same set of days by using the streaming services with a subset of the planned events that are presented through the streaming media and was made available online a week later. This included the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival presentations. Gamescom 2020 was held online. Tokyo Game Show that was scheduled to run 24–27 September 2020, was cancelled, though online events were held in its place. EGX 2020, planned for 17–20 September 2020, was cancelled, though online events were held 12–20 September 2020. MAGWest 2020 and 2021 were both held virtually. TennoCon 2020 and 2021 were conducted virtually. 2020 Gaming Community Expo scheduled for Orlando, Florida, in June was cancelled. The event moved online as a charity marathon.

Esports Most esports events are based on online games, but are typically played in local arenas to reduce network latency between players as well as to provide an audience. The pandemic caused many of these events to either become cancelled or switch to a fully online format for 2020:

ESL Pro League Season 11, a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament was originally going to be an offline event with the finals taking place at Denver, Colorado, United States. However, due to the pandemic, ESL announced that both the regular season and the finals would be split into two regions: Europe and North America. The regular season and the finals were played entirely online. The competitions for non-rhythm games of the ninth season of Konami Arcade Championships (KAC), which were to be held from 22 and 24 February at e-sports GINZA Studio, were postponed indefinitely. This did not affect the competitions within Konami's Bemani rhythm games, as they were held earlier that month at the Japan Amusement Expo. On 16 December, Konami announced that the tenth season in 2021 would restrict participation to Japanese players only instead of worldwide as it has been traditionally done since 2012 (which include South Korea, Asia and United States), as a result of the travel restrictions set by the Japanese government; in addition, the finals that were to be held on 6 and 7 March 2021, would be in the GINZA Studio, behind closed doors. On 7 January 2021, Konami extended the qualifying period for the 10th tournament indefinitely while the finals were postponed. On 8 February 2021, Konami announced the 9th tournament would be cancelled. On 22 March 2021, a day after the state of emergency was lifted, the qualifier rounds were announced to end on 20 April. 闘神祭2020 (Tōshinsai), a cross-arcade game tournament held in Japan that is co-organised by NTT-esports and Taito, was cancelled. The finals initially scheduled from 16–17 May were postponed to 8–9 August. The Overwatch League, in its 2020 season and third overall, planned to implement a home/away approach to regular season play similar to professional sports, with teams travelling across the globe to various homestand events for matches. With the pandemic, numerous changes to the league's plans had to be implemented, which included switching to online matches, reworking the teams' distributions in divisions as some teams were forced to suspend operations, cancelling certain mid-season events, and otherwise reducing the planned schedule of play. During the 2021 season, there were limited homestands by the Chinese teams and Dallas Fuel. To reduce latency during interregional tournaments, teams from the West division (North America and Europe) travelled to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, as they could connect to a Tokyo-based game server via an undersea communications cable link. The playoffs and finals were originally scheduled to be held as live events in Los Angeles and Arlington respectively, but they were canceled and replaced with the same remote format as earlier due to COVID-19 and Delta variant concerns.