Software and games firm Microsoft has said that it has seen "record numbers" of people using its online services.

In a notification on its support site, the Big M said that it had seen all-time highs for Xbox Live, its Game Pass subscription service as well as streaming platform Mixer. As a result, the firm has had to make some changes, including removing customised gamer pics, as well as pics and backgrounds for clubs.

At the time of writing, Hi-Rez's Smite and The Division 2 from Ubisoft are both down on Xbox Live, likely due to heightened demand.

As reported by VGC, Microsoft has also seen a huge increase in its cloud services. The Big M reports that it has seen a 775 per cent rise in demand for its cloud services in regions where social distancing has been enforced.

This is all due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which has seen people around the world encouraged or ordered to stay indoors and self-isolate in order to slow the spread of the virus.

Valve has seen consecutive highs in the number of concurrent users on its Steam platform as well as people actually playing games for the last three weekends.