Since the pandemic has hit, people are staying in and playing more games, it's a simple fact. And those that haven't really played games before are quickly getting into them, leading to the ongoing shortage of Switch consoles. With so much time on their hands, some folks are willing to try new things just to get through the day quicker. That, along with its price tag of zero dollars, might be why Google's Stadia platform has seen a boost in users recently.Alphabet, Google's parent company, has been offering two months of Google Stadia Premium for free to users. But what does that mean for the service? In terms of numbers, it means over one million installs of the mobile Stadia app, according to analytics firm Sensor Tower. According to the firm, during the week of the announcement that Stadia's premium service would be free, the app hit a new lifetime install peak. Stadia's app was downloaded over 225,000 times, beating out numbers from its launch back in November.

However, this spike in users could mean benefits for Stadia down the line. The streaming platform has struggled to find its feet since release. In the past, it's also found difficulty in courting publishers and developers over to the platform. That counts double for those in the indie gaming world. But a spike in users could sweeten the pot, and, assuming a decent percentage of them continue using the service, Stadia will not only be a more populated platform, but a more profitable one.

If you want to hop on this boat, all you need is a Gmail account to register on Stadia's site.