Jeremy Lewis

Big Fish Games Chief Executive Jeremy Lewis likes to call it the Charlie Chaplin effect -- the idea that people need cheap forms of escapist entertainment during tough economic times. Well, that theory appears to be working very well for Big Fish. The Seattle distributor of casual games posted record revenue last year of $85 million, a 70 percent increase over the prior year.

The growth and profits continue to pile up. The company, which employs 350 and has 35 open positions, just had its biggest revenue month ever in January. And Lewis said that more people joined its Big Fish Games Club -- which allows people to use prepaid credits to purchase games -- last month than they did in September of last year. In fact, the growth rate for that club surged by 111 percent, Lewis said.

Maybe it is all of the unemployed Americans who are struggling to find work. Actually, we reported in November that the video game business may be somewhat recession proof, especially the cheaper puzzle, card and arcade style games that Big Fish specializes in.

Now, The Wall Street Journal picks up on the theory in a story today, noting that the Internet is acting as "a social anesthesia that distracts people from the stress of unemployment."

Lewis doesn't see any real let up in business, saying that the company's games are increasingly becoming a staple of  "people's daily diet of what they consume on the Internet."

There's a lot of consumption going on. In addition to the record revenue of $85 million, Big Fish distributed more than 400 million games last year.

Will it reach half a billion this year?

Big Fish certainly has the capital behind it to boost growth, having raised a whopping $83 million last August.

And while Lewis makes comparisons to the Charlie Chaplin movies of the 1930s, he notes that Big Fish has an advantage over the theatrical entertainment, where people can spend $10 or $15 a pop.

After all, he says once a game is downloaded, a person can keep it forever.