Americans spent over $15 billion on video games in 2010

[Matthew DeCarlo]

According to a preliminary estimate released by NPD, total consumer spending on all video game content in the US was between $15.4 and $15.6 billion during 2010. That figure includes physical console and PC games, digital downloads, used games, rentals, subscriptions, social network games, DLC, and mobile game apps. Assuming the initial data is correct, the research firm believes overall sales have fallen by about 1% from 2009.

Although retail games accounted for the majority of spending with $10.1 billion in revenue, sales dropped 5% from $10.6 billion in 2009. PC game sales increased by 3%, and that's no surprise with blockbusters like StarCraft II and WoW: Cataclysm breaking records last year. That, combined with increased spending on downloads, mobile games and other segments offset the declines in physical sales, rentals and subscriptions.

"The increasing number of ways to acquire the content has allowed the industry to maintain total consumer spend on content as compared to 2009, and we should expect 2011 to be a growth year in the games industry as the consumer demand for gaming continues to evolve," NPD said. The outfit expects to release a final estimate of consumer spending in March's "Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend (2010)" report.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/41991-americans-spent-over-15-billion-on-video-games-in-2010.html

 

[TomSEA]

And I'm pretty sure that was me spending 14 billion of that due to all those damn Steam sales. ;-)

 

[Benny26]

TomSEA said:
And I'm pretty sure that was me spending 14 billion of that due to all those damn Steam sales. ;-)

Did you literally get steamed? :0

 

[TomSEA]

LOL...yes, I believe you could say that.

 

[matrix86]

Hm...let's see....carry the 1, drop the 2, subtract the 1, add the three......ok, I've calculated that I contributed absolutely nothing to those numbers, lol. 2010 was my "crap, I have NO money" year, therefore spent nothing on games/consoles. Kind of hard to stimulate the economy when you can hardly even stimulate your own bank account

 

[gwailo247]

And just to think they would have spent 150 billion dollars it it wasn't for piracy.

 

[g4mer]

gwailo247 said:
And just to think they would have spent 150 billion dollars it it wasn't for piracy.

I don't think so. They are pirating software because they don't have money(most of them). Even if there was no piracy those people wouldn't buy software because they have no money for it.

 

[TomSEA]

People steal because they have the anonymity of the Internet and it's easy to do. That old "I can't afford it so I have to" excuse is just that. Another excuse.

 

[gwailo247]

I forgot my sarcasm emoticon. =)

After the 1 BILLION that COD made I don't want to hear about piracy ever again. ever. nothing makes a billion, but they somehow could.

 

[Prosercunus]

I am guilty of spending almost all my entertainment/fun budget on video games.

 

[Sarcasm]

If I didn't spend so much money on guns and computer stuff, I'd probably have more games. Oh well, year end Steam sales make me spend 1/100th of the yearly budget and have enough games to last me for a long while.

 

[Richy2k9]

hello ...

TomSEA said:
People steal because they have the anonymity of the Internet and it's easy to do. That old "I can't afford it so I have to" excuse is just that. Another excuse.

A.G.R.E.E !!!! - My boss (who owes a lot more than i do, don't want to pay for games ... can i turn him out!?)

Oh, i forgot, anonymity is just the perception of the reality we (as ISPs) want to make you think of ...

& I wonder how much the rest of the world spent on video games ... i'm sure a quite big portion did come from MU, for like TomSEA, i've bought the rest of Steamy site & alike

& 2011 started with me feeling broke suddenly after buying 2-3 more console games ...

cheers!

 

[maestromasada]

I find playing games a totally waste of time and an evasion of reality. Hunger in the World dissapiar if we all contribute a bit, donating old games to more needed people.

Sorry if I offende some of you felllows. I will show up now for 3 seconds only in hte bench and you can try and shoot me, throw me a granade if you dare!

 

[Benny26]

I find playing games a totally waste of time and an evasion of reality. Hunger in the World dissapiar if we all contribute a bit, donating old games to more needed people.

Sorry if I offende some of you felllows. I will show up now for 3 seconds only in hte bench and you can try and shoot me, throw me a granade if you dare!

How can donating a video game solve a person's hunger?..Unless you mean doing some reality 'evasion', and so not thinking about food maybe?

Also, i consider playing games as wasting time with style, as opposed to just wasting time.

 

[Lurker101]

maestromasada said:
I find playing games a totally waste of time and an evasion of reality.

That's exactly what video games are. They're a way to escape from reality and indulge in a more fun one. And if doing that makes someone feel a little better, a little happier, a little less stressed, then it isn't wasted time. The same can be said for a good movie, a book or a TV show. If you can get immersed, it's a nice escape from reality.

Now to get back on topic, I know I contributed none of that $15 Billion. 2010 wasn't really a fantastic year in gaming for me, but I still bought a small handful of titles. Would be interesting to see how much was spent on gaming over here in the UK.

 

[Zecias]

gwailo247 said:
And just to think they would have spent 150 billion dollars it it wasn't for piracy.

i dont think it would have resulted in that much of a gain. if people are too cheap to buy a game on sale for $5, they probably wouldnt have bought it in the first place.

 

[bioflex]

zecias said:

gwailo247 said:
And just to think they would have spent 150 billion dollars it it wasn't for piracy.

i dont think it would have resulted in that much of a gain. if people are too cheap to buy a game on sale for $5, they probably wouldnt have bought it in the first place.

any body would buy a good game for $5...now the thing is this

1. most people living in other areas of the world dont earn enough to afford buying games, that u cant ignore

2. secondly even if those people want to buy it, they are limited by accessibility, do u imagine what i have to go through before i can legitly buy a game, i have to send money to a relative who lives abroad(credit cards dont work for **** here) or i either buy it at a very expensive price here which brings us back to point 1.

sometime people take advantage of piracy and dont buy games even if they could but u just cant blame everybody for that...we can only hope things dont get so bad, but at this rate ....hmm i am afraid

 

[gwailo247]

bioflex said:
1. most people living in other areas of the world dont earn enough to afford buying games, that u cant ignore.

They're not stealing bread or drinking water, they're stealing computer games. Poverty is no excuse for theft of luxury goods.

 

[Guest]

Why does the writer use two references?.... at first he says america, then he says USA? which is it? drastically different markets...

 

[Benny26]

Gwailo247 said:
Poverty is no excuse for theft of luxury goods.

Hmm..Yeah, but it's not a bad excuse to start with

 

[edison5do]

TomSEA said:
People steal because they have the anonymity of the Internet and it's easy to do. That old "I can't afford it so I have to" excuse is just that. Another excuse.

TomSEA...

REMEMBER THAT NOT EVERY COUNTRY USE $US DOLLAR in my country you will have to pay RD$ 37.30 just for a single (1) U$ Dollar, that means a game that is U$ 60 for you and RD$ 2238, and the regular salary is RD$ 7500.... That means a game is 30 % of the normal person salary in my country. DO YOU REALLY THINK IT IS AN EXCUSE?

I know it's not my case and I dont pirate Im a casual gamer that only buy what I really know im gona enjoy for long time, like BBC2, MW2, SC1, and 2.