Entertainment and gaming apps have been a huge hit across the nation amid ongoing quarantine. As everyone is mandated to stay home and flatten the curve via self-isolation, games and entertainment applications have been downloaded left and right while people around the nation find ways to remain entertained. 

Social media applications like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can keep the world connected with their loved ones, but interacting with family and friends is also accessible through gaming apps. Influencers and celebrities have been interacting with their followers and creating platforms online that allow them to stay connected and entertain their fans. They go “live” on Instagram and do at-home cooking shows, play games and even have at-home concerts wherein anyone with an Instagram account can attend.

Games like Fortine are used to not just virtually connect with friends and have competitive games, but to have the opportunity to talk to whoever players are in match with. Recently, popular rap artist Travis Scott, for example, announced he would be holding a concert on Fortnite. It lasted for about 10 minutes and was an animated short-film concert. He performed two of his popular songs, “Highest In The Room” and “Goosebumps” to create a rave-like experience with neon lights: a performance that his Fortnite avatar was putting on in-game. 

Over 12 million people watched Scott’s performance live. 

While many quarantiners are entertained by popular games like Fortnite, there are other popular games and entertainment applications hitting top charts on the Apple Inc. iTunes store: doing so, precisely, due to the pandemic. 

The application  “House Party” is number three on AppleTop Charts for free apps on Apple iTunes. The app is a face-to-face network where users  have the opportunity to video chat with friends and loved ones. Although there are already apps like Zoom, and even FaceTime on Apple devices, House Party has unique features that have reigned as quite the crowd-pleaser. 

It is accessible on iPhones, Androids and more smart devices. 

On “House Party,” users can play games like Heads Up!, Trivia, Quick Draw as well as Chips and Guac, all while being on a video call with friends. It is a fun way to catch up and get competitive even with a game like Trivia; the app even gives users fun celebrity facts while they wait for other users to connect on video-chat. 

Video games are currently at a high demand, alongside games that can be easily downloaded on smartphones. Games like Subway Surfers, an endless runner gaming fleeing on a railroad trying to escape an officer, has been downloaded 1.249 billion times on Android phones, according to Dan Price, journalist of “Make Use Of.”

Right behind Subway Surfers, Candy Crush has been downloaded 1 billion times and has seen a rise in downloads during the pandemic all the while. 

People around the nation are trying to be entertained while stuck at home: but many also know that, after all, staying entertained through a screen can only last for so long.