From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal.

I'm Al Edson.

With so many of us sheltering in place to stay safe from the coronavirus, we saw a stat

that maybe shouldn't have come as a surprise.

There's been a huge spike in online gaming.

And it made us think back to an episode we brought you last summer about games people

play on Facebook and their smartphones.

It's from Reveals, Nate Halverson.

And Nate, where are you these days?

Well Al, I'm reporting from my cabin up in the mountains.

It's pretty majestic up here. The birds are singing and it's finally getting warm

and the snow is melted and I've got internet.

So until we can come back into the newsroom, I've been working from up here.

And Nate, how big of a jump has there been in online gaming?

Oh, it's been huge. I mean, people are downloading games at record levels, never seen before.

And of course, there's been an uptick in things like video conferencing and, you know, education programs

and food delivery at home.

But the biggest jump, the most downloaded apps right now are mobile games.

And it's especially true for children.

Many of these games are marketed at kids.

And that was what your original investigation was about.

Yeah, that's right. I got into this story a few years back.

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