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.
Stranger Things.
I played TTRPGs a lot growing up, but moved on when I went to university. One pandemic and a lot of nostalgic synthwave later, I’m rolling dice again.
Same! I went from 0 to 60, I play in 4 regular games and have a 5th character that is for Organized Play that I run about every other month or so.
Stranger Things and Critical Role both had a big part in blowing up TTRPGs