Latest News
3 in 10 Brits Have Skipped a Shower or a Meal to Play Video Games in Lockdown
More Brits than ever played video games last year to beat the boredom of staying home, and our third lockdown in 2021 has seen the trend gain even more traction. With games being released on more platforms, and more genres than ever now is an excellent time to be a gamer!
Fresh Student Living took a deep dive into the gaming industry in the UK to see just what an impact Covid has had on gaming.
More than four in ten UK gamers say they’ve been gaming more during the COVID-19 outbreak (43%). Plus, UK gamers now make up over two thirds of the population (67%); six in ten of this group say they play mobile games (52%); a quarter PC games (25%); and three in ten console games (28%).
When the pandemic first put a stop to everyday life, the gaming world expanded with regular players putting in even more time, and new people joining the trend to connect with friends, kill time and indulge in much-needed escapism. As more people picked up controllers, the UK gaming population exploded by a whopping 63%! People reported feeling happier and calmer, with a higher sense of freedom, thanks to how immersive the best video games are.
The Average Gamer Spent the Equivalent of 39 Days Playing Last Year
Games like FIFA 21, Call of Duty, Animal Crossing and Last of Us were some of the most played games of 2020, with 3 in 10 people skipping showers and meals to play uninterrupted. Almost 6 in 10 Brits also admit to losing sleep due to gaming sessions.
Pre lockdown, the average gamer spent around 13 hours a week playing their favourites. This increased by 5 hours during lockdown with Brits spending 18 hours or more exploring new worlds online – that’s equivalent to 39 whole days spent gaming!
The average gamer usually sets aside a conservative 1-3 hours to play, but in the UK, at least 3% of the population confesses to playing for 15 hours or more in one sitting.
What Video Games is Everyone Playing?
Most Played Video Games of 2020 According to Units Sold
FIFA 21 dominated in 2020 as one of the most anticipated games in the UK, with around 14 games selling per second in the UK last year.
- FIFA 21 (2.18 million)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (1.4 million)
- Grand Theft Auto 5 (1.1 million)
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (800,000)
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (660,000)
- The Last of Us Part II (530,000)
- NBA 2K20 (480,000)
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (430,000)
More Brits Are Hooked on Video Games
Lockdown has given us all more time to kill, and today the split between male and female video gamers is strictly 50-50. In the UK, 54% of men and women play a game most days, lowering stress and connecting with others being two of the primary motivators.
Multiplayer Games Keep us Connected
With time to kill and social distancing in effect for most of last year, multiplayer games’ popularity soared as more people jumped online to chat and connect. Even ex-gamers again picked up their controllers to join online communities playing games like Call of Duty, Animal Crossing or Fortnite.
Unsurprisingly, lockdown saw most Brits opt for action-packed and interactive genres, with most gamers choosing fighting, action and huge multiplayer Battle Royale games with lots of other players!
Most played genres in 2020
- Fighting – 81%
- Action – 79%
- Massively multiplayer online games – 78%
- Multiplayer online battle arena games – 75%
The Rise of Covideogamers in 2021
Lockdown has massively changed the gaming community across the world. In the UK, younger gamers spend loads of time playing while self-isolating and spend around two hours a month watching other people play online – a pastime that has increased since lockdown began.
The pandemic has also created a whole new subgenre of gamers known as Covideogamers, who exclusively started gaming during lockdown. Compared to 36% of existing gamers between the ages of 18 – 34, Covideogamers now make up 46% of the population in the same age group – 35% of these new gamers have also admitted it’s so relaxing and stress-relieving, they’re going to start playing more, long after lockdown ends!
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Casino Content
Spinmatic launches Elemental Fusion Deluxe with instant Plinko bonus triggers
Spinmatic has launched Elemental Fusion Deluxe, a new slot built around instant access to its Plinko mechanic from the base game, the supplier said. The title was announced on 9 June 2026 from Malta.
Elemental Fusion Deluxe runs on a 5×3 layout with 25 fixed paylines. Spinmatic lists the game as medium-high volatility with a 96.04% RTP and 39.49% hit frequency.
The game’s feature set includes Gold Wilds, which can appear on any reel and substitute for standard symbols (excluding the Special Plinko Symbol and the Special Element Elixir Symbols). Spinmatic also says base gameplay uses “Instant Elixir Multipliers” linked to Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Galaxy symbols.
Instead of an accumulator-style collection mechanic, the Plinko Feature Trigger activates when three dedicated trigger symbols land on reels 1, 3, and 5, launching a random Plinko bonus. Spinmatic says the Plinko bonus is split into four elemental modes after a selection wheel sets a starting pool of 10 to 100 balls: Water Plinko (low volatility, Mini Jackpot), Air Plinko (medium volatility, Midi Jackpot), Earth Plinko (high volatility, Maxi Jackpot), and Fire Plinko (very high volatility, Grand Jackpot), played on a 16-row pyramid.
The company framed the release around reducing time-to-feature: “In a market where a split-second delay can lose a player, the quality of your content delivery determines your bottom line.”
The post Spinmatic launches Elemental Fusion Deluxe with instant Plinko bonus triggers appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
game launches
Inspired launches Wolf It Up! Roulette 54 and Big Wheel for Hybrid Dealer
Inspired Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: INSE) has launched two new iGaming titles: Wolf It Up! Roulette 54
and Wolf It Up! Big Wheel
. The games were announced June 9, 2026 and are powered by the company’s Hybrid Dealer® format and its Cash Bank
mechanic.
Wolf It Up! Roulette 54 is positioned as a roulette-style product delivered in a Hybrid Dealer presentation with pre-recorded hosts and a CGI studio environment. Inspired said the game’s layout uses numbers 1 to 50 plus four special symbol segments, built to support Cash Bank bonus rounds.
Wolf It Up! Big Wheel is built around an automated 54-segment wheel and uses a roulette-inspired betting interface. Inspired described the game as a faster-paced, gameshow-style alternative within the same Wolf It Up!
theme, with Cash Bank features and “character-driven upgrades.”
Chris Campbell, Product Director at Inspired Entertainment, said: “These two titles are designed to complement each other. Roulette 54 version is for players who want an immersive, live-style experience, and Big Wheel is for those after something faster and more streamlined. Underpinning both is our Cash Bank mechanic, making this duo a particularly exciting addition to our Hybrid Dealer portfolio.”
The post Inspired launches Wolf It Up! Roulette 54 and Big Wheel for Hybrid Dealer appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Game Aggregation
Groove confirms SBC Summit Americas 2026 attendance in Fort Lauderdale
Groove will attend SBC Summit Americas 2026, taking place June 9–11 at the Broward County Convention Centre in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The company said its leadership team will be on site, including Co-Founder and CEO Yahale Meltzer and Business Development Director Giusy Campo, to meet operators, regulators, and affiliates.
The appearance follows Groove’s participation at SiGMA Asia in Manila, where the company said it joined a panel on regulatory resilience in the “Jurisdiction Jungle”. In Fort Lauderdale, Groove plans to continue discussions focused on navigating fragmented regulatory environments across North and Latin America.
Giusy Campo, Business Development Director at Groove, said: “When we move into a new region, we don’t arrive empty-handed. We come with a platform built on structural resilience: predictive auto-scaling, atomic transactions, and a real-time compliance mesh that adapts to jurisdictional demands, not the other way around. Operators in the Americas face many of the same pressures as their counterparts in Asia: banking scrutiny, shifting regulations, and the need for flawless execution. Our ‘Unseen Architecture’ was built for exactly this moment.” She added: “They need a partner whose platform won’t introduce compliance or operational risk into their business. That’s what we deliver. From Manila to Miami, the questions are the same. And we have the answers.”
Groove said it enters the event after what it described as a “transformative 2025,” including securing a license to operate in Brazil and establishing regulated activity in Argentina, alongside expansion across Europe, Africa, and Asia. The company also said it offers “over 15,000 games from more than 150 providers unified through a single API.”
Meltzer said: “We don’t do ‘one-off’ events. We build continuous relationships across the markets that matter. Asia was about demonstrating structural resilience in the face of fragmentation. The Americas require the same rigour: a platform that can scale from a single operator in Argentina to a national lottery in Brazil without breaking compliance or trust. Our nomination in Manila wasn’t an endpoint. It was a signal. Now we take that signal to Fort Lauderdale, where the real work begins.” He also pointed to Groove’s offices in Israel, Georgia, and Malta, and its 24/7 multilingual support team as part of its operating model.
The post Groove confirms SBC Summit Americas 2026 attendance in Fort Lauderdale appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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