13, 2020 on march 16, 2020. the 2020 pokémon world championships was cancelled by the pokémon company including its north american (scheduled for 26–28 june) and global (scheduled for 14–16 august) events. the 2020 nürburgring world tour, a live event of the 2020 fia-certified gran turismo championships season, was cancelled after the 2020 nürburgring 24 hours was postponed by the organizers to september. as the online season had begun on 17 march, the decision was made to change the stage that was planned to end on 18 april an "exhibition stage", and to restart the season on 25 april. a teaser trailer for the restarted season indicated that no further live events would be held, having held only one live event in sydney, australia. consequently, the regional and world finals for the series were held as online-based events. the live rocket league world championship for its 9th season, planned for 24 april 2020 in dallas, was indefinitely postponed. the 2020 fortnite world cup was cancelled. the international 2020 tournament for dota 2, set to be held in stockholm in august 2020, was postponed indefinitely before being pushed back a year and rebranded as the international 2021. that event was to be held with in-person spectators in bucharest, romania, in october 2021, but due to new covid-19 restrictions in the city, it was announced that the event would instead be played behind closed doors at the stadium with only essential personnel present. evo 2020, set to be held in las vegas near the end of july, was cancelled. online events were scheduled before the entire tournament was cancelled due to sexual abuse allegations against its co-founder. evo online was held in 2021, with its announcement concurrent with the acquisition of evo by sony interactive entertainment and endeavor. it was later announced that the top players at evo online would compete at an in-person "evo showcase" event at ufc apex in las vegas (owned by endeavor subsidiary ultimate fighting championship) in november. however on 29 september 2021, evo announced that evo showcase had been cancelled due to covid-19-related concerns (including delta variant). mobile legends: bang bang southeast asia cup (msc) 2020, set to be held in philippines on 12–14 june 2020, was cancelled. arena of valor world cup 2020, set to be held in vietnam, was cancelled. free fire champions cup 2020, set to be held in indonesia in april 2020; and free fire worlds series 2021, set to be held in mexico, were cancelled. the asia-pacific predator league 2020 was postponed to spring 2021. all of the qualifying teams during the event were to participate in the finale in 2021. the teppen world championship 2020 was held entirely online. offline tournaments meant to qualify players to the finals were cancelled due to the pandemic. while many traditional physical sports games, seasons, and playoffs were cancelled due to the pandemic, the organizing leagues turned to video game equivalents as alternative entertainment, using the professional athletes from their leagues within the games. some examples of this included: nascar launched its enascar iracing pro invitational series on 22 march 2020, featuring nascar drivers competing using the iracing game. the indycar series launched its own indycar iracing challenge series as well. major league baseball partnered with sony to create a short league for 30 professional players playing mlb: the show. the 2021 pro bowl for the national football league, to have taken place in january 2021, was cancelled due to covid-19, with the nfl opting to use a virtual game in madden nfl 21 to celebrate the players selected by fans. television networks which normally would have shown the sporting events that were cancelled have turned to both these replacement sports programs as well as other esport tournaments as replacement programming during the pandemic. on 14 june 2020, the bbc reported that about 22 million sports viewers turned to virtual races when lockdowns were implemented. questions over the future of esports rose with formula 1 returning in july 2020. hardware production nintendo switch production in vietnam had been scaled back due to reduced supply of components out of china because of the quarantines. as a result, supplies for the switch were significantly reduced in japan. in its annual report issued in may 2020, nintendo believed that production would resume normal levels within a few months. further, nintendo of america closed its repair center as a preventative measure. the company's headquarters in redmond, washington, and the flagship store in new york city were also closed. valve announced that its production on the valve index virtual reality headset was reduced due to the impact of the pandemic and would have fewer shipments expected than planned by the release of half-life: alyx. konami delayed release of the turbografx-16 mini in march due to production chain issues in china due to the pandemic. atari delayed the atari vcs that was initially supposed to release in march 2020 because of the pandemic. microsoft did not anticipate any delay in the planned release of the xbox series x console, according to phil spencer as of april 2020. he stated that some games expected near launch may be delayed as a result. the evercade handheld console, originally due to release on may 22, 2020, released sometime between may 22, and june 5, 2020. nvidia's geforce 30 series of graphics cards immediately sold out upon their release, due largely to a rise in consumer demand for computer hardware during the pandemic, as well as a lack in proper security against scalpers. sales generally, sales of video games have increased as a result of stay-at-home and lockdown orders from the pandemic, as people turned to video games as a pastime. the npd group reported that video game sales in north america in march 2020 were up 34% from those in march 2019, and video game hardware up by 63% – which included more than twice the number of units of the nintendo switch console. net spending across the first quarter of 2020 in the united states reached us$10.9 billion, up 9% in 2020 compared to 2019 according to npd. an increase at this point, near the planned end of the eighth generation of video game consoles, was unusual and was attributed to the pandemic. by july 2020, npd group reported that the total sales of video game hardware and software within the united states in the first six months of 2020 reached us$6.6 billion, the highest since 2010. some specific examples of game software and hardware sales affected by the pandemic include: the 2012 game plague inc. by ndemic creations had a significant increase in sales as a result of the pandemic. the game temporarily became the top-paid app on several regional app stores, beating out the perennial bestseller minecraft. some analysts believed that those worried about the pandemic used the game to see that it could spread as a means to placate their fears. while the game was based on scientific models of the spread of contagious diseases, ndemic had to remind the players that the game was not meant to be taken as an accurate model for transmission and spread and referred those interested to the centers for disease control and other national and international health organization websites. ndemic later added a new gameplay mode to plague inc, with the goal to try to stop an ongoing pandemic through various possible options by using the work that it developed in coordination with who and the global outbreak alert and response network. the company also donated us$250,000 to the coalition of epidemic preparedness innovations and the who covid-19 solidarity response fund to help fight the pandemic and encouraged the players of the game to do the same. the 2018 digital adaption of pandemic by asmodee experienced an increase in sales. both doom eternal and animal crossing: new horizons, major aaa titles released in march 2020, outperformed industry expectations, with animal crossing selling more in its opening week in the united kingdom than all of the previous launches in the franchise combined for the same region. ring fit adventure, which involves physical activity, was in high demand in china as a result of the quarantine. sales led to shortages and price gouging in east asia and nearby regions. similar shortages for the game expanded as quarantines and stay-at-home orders came to many western locations during march 2020. coupled with lowered hardware production, the nintendo switch became a high-selling commodity during the pandemic, as it provided entertainment options across all ages, especially with animal crossing: new horizons. nintendo worked to supply as many units as possible globally to most markets, which led to some resellers using bots to scalp. the switch's high sales helped to offset low sales of other console hardware within the united states and buoy higher revenues for the sector. among us rose in popularity through twitch after streamer sodapoppin popularised it through the platform in late july 2020. minecraft dungeons topped animal crossing on the north america eshop when they released their new dlc packs: jungle awakens and creeping winter. they also announced cross-platform features. software releases an estimated one-third of developers surveyed in 2020 by the gdc stated that covid-19 caused a delay of the games they were working on, a combination of the pandemic and the remote working conditions. by 2021, this had increased to 44% by 2021 in a subsequent gdc survey. some games that were delayed included: the outer worlds for nintendo switch from march 6 to june 5, 2020 someday you'll return from april 14 to may 5, 2020 hellpoint from april 16 to july 30, 2020 yumeutsutsu re:master and yumeutsutsu re:after for playstation vita from april 23 to july 23, 2020. the playstation 4 versions were never delayed despite confirmation of such. minecraft dungeons from april to may 26, 2020 trackmania from may 5 to july 1, 2020 marvel's iron man vr from may 15 to july 3, 2020 the wonderful 101: remastered physical edition from may 19 to june 30 in north america and may 22 to july 3, 2020 in europe sword art online: alicization lycoris from may 21 to july 9 in japan and may 22 to july 10, 2020 in north america is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? infinite combat from early 2020 to august 7, 2020 in europe and august 11, 2020 in north america ninjala from may 27 to june 24, 2020 final fantasy xiv patch 5.3 from june 16 to august 11, 2020, as well as the game's fourth expansion pack, endwalker, from q3 2021 to december 7, 2021 fairy tail from june 25 to july 30, 2020 in japan and europe, and a day later in north america e-school life for nintendo switch and ps4 from june 25 to july 30, 2020 in japan fast & furious crossroads from may to august 7, 2020 kiss trilogy for ps4 and nintendo switch from june 25 to august 27, 2020 in japan kingdom hearts: dark road from early 2020 to june 22, 2020 no straight roads from june 30 to august 25, 2020 ary and the secret of seasons from july 28 to september 1, 2020 death stranding for pc from june 2 to july 14, 2020 wasteland 3 from may 19 to august 28, 2020 the last of us part ii from may 29 to june 19, 2020 ghost of tsushima from june 26 to july 17, 2020 monster hunter world: iceborne: title update 4 from may to july 9, 2020 little witch academia: vr broom racing from june to late 2020 for oculus quest and early 2021 for playstation vr, oculus rift and steamvr rock of ages 3: make & break from june 2 to july 21, 2020 star wars episode i: racer remaster for nintendo switch and ps4 from may 12 to june 23, 2020 phogs! from june to december 3, 2020 the dark pictures anthology: little hope from mid-2020 to october 30, 2020 mafia: definitive edition from august 28 to september 25, 2020 stronghold: warlords from september 29, 2020 to january 9, 2021, and then finally released at march 9, 2021, after further delays due to problems in the game's multiplayer mode. blue fire for ps4, xbox one and pc from mid-2020 to q1 2021 kerbal space