The Coronavirus outbreak has forced a lot of people to stay at home for prolongued periods of time, and this has unsurprisingly increased demand for video games in general — as being confined to home can get somewhat exhausting.
While Japan isn't currently in a state of emergency, most people have voluntarily opted to stay at home in order to prevent the epidemic from spreading even further. This has made the demand for Nintendo Switch consoles increase to ridiculously high levels.
According to Daniel Ahmad, Senior Analyst at Niko Partners, demand for Nintendo Switch consoles is so high in Japan that Japanese retailer Yamada Denki has opened a lottery for 130 consoles, and 900 copies of Nintendo's Ring Fit Adventure; a fitness title, much like its name appropriately suggests.
Over 200,000 Japanese customers entered Yamada Denki's lottery, which in turn caused the retailer's server to crash. This lottery doesn't even give away free consoles or games, as it gives customers a chance to purchase either a Nintendo Switch or a copy of Ring Fit Adventure.
Of course, customers can easily purchase Ring Fit Adventure from the Nintendo Switch eShop, but the problem is that the game does require the peripherals that the physical copy of the game comes with; making demand for physical copies of the fitness title even higher than normal.