It could be a small surge but something where you noticed a sudden influx of people. Maybe a game you were playing that got quite popular after it was streamed or there was free weekend on Steam.
For example during the quarantine and around the time when the used console market got prohibitively expensive handheld emulators like the RG350 and much later the Miyoo Mini got quite popular. This was partially due to more people at home wanting to play their favorite classics but also them being promoted as “fake” GameBoys and PSPs on TikTok.
Never heard of the guy, when did he start publishing this stuff? David Graeber talked about the advanced civilization that existed in China and the Islamic world during the European Middle Ages, and Kim Stanley Robinson alluded to the same point in The Years of Rice and Salt.