Amid a current global spread of Nova Coronavirus which started from a market in Wuhan which sold fish and live animals, people have looked to many sources to understand the possibilities of its potential spread around the globe. However, one unlikely source people have been sharing online is from a real-time strategy game called Plague Inc which is available as an iOS, Steam, Android and as a board game. The app tasks players with bringing about “the end of human history by evolving a deadly, global plague”.
Whenever there has been an outbreak of some kind of spreadable infectious disease the app surges in popularity, however this time they set a new record on Steam, clocking in 15,823 concurrent players. To put that in perspective, prior to the Coronavirus outbreak its concurrent peak was 4601, a record almost two years ago in April 2018.
The developer of Plague Inc, Ndemic Creations has since issued a statement to remind users that the simulator is “not a scientific model” as thousands of new users, many from China, turn to the game in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak.
“Plague Inc. has been out for eight years now and 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,” they said in a statement, which was also shared on social media after the game’s website went down “due to very high player numbers.
Ndemic Creations
However, please remember that Plague Inc. is a game, not a scientific model and that the Coronavirus is a very real situation which is impacting a huge number of people. We would always recommend that players get their information directly from local and global health authorities.”
