The continuing COVID-19 pandemic has proven disastrous for many sectors, yet the video game industry is continuing to boom. The quarantine has given many of us the chance to play more video games, particularly when some of us are now “working” from home.

Following the lockdown, US consumer spending on video games reached a second-quarter (from April to June) high of $11.6 billion, an increase of 30 percent from the previous year. In April alone, the increases were 73 percent for games, 163 percent for hardware, and 46 percent for accessories. These changes are particularly notable as spending often declines before the launch of a new generation of consoles, which both Microsoft and Sony are planning this month.

Video games have provided an escape for many during the pandemic. Before lockdown, they had already become a mainstream cultural activity, but political debates about the role of the medium had only just begun to develop beyond panic about violence and immorality. With this increased interest, they’re seen as offering more than just an opportunity to corrupt young minds — as evidenced, for example, by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s and Ilhan Omar’s recent Twitch streams of Among Us to promote voting.