Google Stadia Gains Users After Giving Free Access for 2 Months

Google's cloud-based game streaming service, Stadia, has witnessed a surge in users after the tech giant gifted two months of free access to its premium version for gamers sheltering at home to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Stadia's mobile app, one of the multiple platforms to use the service and to configure the Stadia controller, has crossed 1 million installs globally, according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower.

With countries in lockdowns, mobile and console games have recorded a jump in sales and user spending, with US videogame sales hitting highest in over a decade.

Sales of gaming hardware, software, and accessories in the United States jumped 35 percent to $1.6 billion last month from a year earlier, according to data from research firm NPD.

The sales and growth are the highest for the month since March 2008, when sales grew over 52 percent to $1.8 billion, NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said.

Alphabet's Google said earlier in April that it would give two months of free access to Stadia Pro.

The week of the announcement recorded the mobile app's highest weekly installs since its launch in November, reaching about 225,000 globally across the App Store and Google Play, the data said.

April 23, 2020