Online games see revenue boosts amid outbreak

Tencent Holdings Ltd and other China stocks jumped significantly over the past two days, as people shift from real-world activities like traveling to online entertainment amid coronavirus fears.

Tencent stock rose 3.42 percent on Tuesday. Yoozoo Games and G-bits Network Technology rose 7.01 and 5.27 percent, respectively.

TF securities said in a new report that online games and video games will benefit from the coronavirus outbreak. Analysts noted many blockbuster gaming titles have seen a significant jump in play time and in-game purchases during the period surrounding the Spring Festival holiday.

Statistics from Chinese games database Gamma Data Corp showed the 10 best-selling games on the iOS App Store saw revenues jump more than 40 percent during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday. And revenues of the top 10 to 60 games surged more than 100 percent during that period.

TF securities estimated Tencent's popular mobile role-playing game King of Glory's revenue may have reached as high as 2 billion yuan ($286 million) a day during the Spring Festival period. It also predicted that Tencent's Game for Peace may gain 100 million daily active users during that period.

"With the backdrop of the novel coronavirus outbreak, most people will choose to stay home, with public activities canceled and travel plans stalled," TF Securities said in the report. "People will shift from offline activities to online entertainment. Games, especially mobile games, will likely be the biggest beneficiary of the disruption."