Consumer spending on video gaming up 40 percent in the first half of 2018

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: The NPD Group said consumer spending is up across the board but didn't delve into the reasons why. Is it new consoles, a great slate of games, trends in mobile gaming, the livestreaming industry, or perhaps a combination of all of these?

Consumer spending on video gaming in the US increased 40 percent to $19.5 billion in the first half of 2018 according to a recent report from The NPD Group.

In its latest Games Market Dynamics report, the market research firm found that spending on video game hardware hit a seven-year high. Sales reached $1.7 billion in H1 2018, an increase of 21 percent year-over-year, led by strong performances of the Xbox One and Nintendo’s SNES Classic Edition.

Mat Piscatella, games industry analyst at The NPD Group, clarified on Twitter that the Xbox One had strong year-on-year growth. The PlayStation 4 was the best-selling hardware platform in the half but “not a driver of total market change.”

Accessory sales shot up 41 percent with headset / headphone sales nearly doubling.

Content sales, including full-game, DLC / microtransactions and mobile games, were up 43 percent to $16.9 billion during the six-month span. NPD said mobile games experienced the greatest growth during the period.

As for specific software titles, Fortnite, Far Cry 5, Candy Crush, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Roblox and God of War had the “most positive impact on dollar sales” during the half.

Piscatella maintains an optimistic outlook for the remainder of 2018 thanks in part to the strong line-up of titles set to launch in the fourth quarter. Combined with continued strength in hardware and accessory spending, Piscatella anticipates double-digit annual percentage gains for the total market.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/76232-consumer-spending-video-gaming-up-40-percent-first.html

 

[TomSEA]

Candy Crush still hanging around, eh? I wonder how many brazillions of dollars King Studios has made off of that game and it's spin-offs.

This consumer spending report should come as a shock to no one. TV viewing is down, movie viewing is down, but everyone has multiple electronic devices and are using them for something!

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

So maybe we're finally getting high-quality titles for consoles - or maybe they've perfected the formula for squeezing money from micro-transactions.

Or maybe (and probably) with unemployment at an all time low and wage growth across the board people have a little extra money to spend on something fun that they definitely wouldn't buy if they didn't have extra money.

I'd guess income growth is one of the big factors when multiple unrelated things are going up like BOTH Xbox consoles AND Roblox micro-transactions. Those things really don't have much to do with each other especially since if you're playing Xbox you aren't on your PC playing Roblox.

 

[noel24]

Giving how prices of electronics and and popularity of lootboxes and other digital gambling went up last years, It's no wonder that consumer spending followed.
I wonder where is the limit that average American consumer realises that He/She is being milked?
Or is it too late? They voted Trump into Office after all. Are 2006 "Idiocracy" times are upon Us?

 

[Evernessince]

So maybe we're finally getting high-quality titles for consoles - or maybe they've perfected the formula for squeezing money from micro-transactions.

Or maybe (and probably) with unemployment at an all time low and wage growth across the board people have a little extra money to spend on something fun that they definitely wouldn't buy if they didn't have extra money.

I'd guess income growth is one of the big factors when multiple unrelated things are going up like BOTH Xbox consoles AND Roblox micro-transactions. Those things really don't have much to do with each other especially since if you're playing Xbox you aren't on your PC playing Roblox.

What wage growth? By the government's own numbers hourly wages are growing slower then inflation.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/realer.pdf

People are seeing 0.2% more money in their pocket all the while that same money is worth 1.36% less.

You are also assuming the world revolves around the US, which it doesn't. Even if the US was in a golden age again (which it most certainly isn't), you have nothing to correlate the increase in expendable income in the US to the increase in game spending specifically, only assumptions. It's typical precognitive bias.

 

[Skjorn]

All you had to do was say Fortnite.

Thats what its all from. You don't sell double the headsets and communication accessories over one year just because gaming is strong, it was all Fortnite. Had a family member buy their first mic for the game.

 

[Evernessince]

All you had to do was say Fortnite.

Thats what its all from. You don't sell double the headsets and communication accessories over one year just because gaming is strong, it was all Fortnite. Had a family member buy their first mic for the game.

I remember the same craze happened for Halo 3 as well before COD become popular. Seems to go in Cycles.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

What wage growth? By the government's own numbers hourly wages are growing slower then inflation.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/realer.pdf

People are seeing 0.2% more money in their pocket all the while that same money is worth 1.36% less.

You are also assuming the world revolves around the US, which it doesn't. Even if the US was in a golden age again (which it most certainly isn't), you have nothing to correlate the increase in expendable income in the US to the increase in game spending specifically, only assumptions. It's typical precognitive bias.

The world revolves around the US? No... but this story does. the very first line was

Consumer spending on video gaming in the US increased 40 percent

So yeah - we're talking about the US.

I have nothing to correlate the increase in income with an increase in spending? That's one of the basic ideas of economics. People spend more when they have more. It's common sense.

I know you love to argue absolutely everything, but c'mon...

 

[Evernessince]

The world revolves around the US? No... but this story does. the very first line was So yeah - we're talking about the US.

I have nothing to correlate the increase in income with an increase in spending? That's one of the basic ideas of economics. People spend more when they have more. It's common sense.

I know you love to argue absolutely everything, but c'mon...

lol, I just provided a link showing people weren't getting more income /faceplam

Here it is again directly from the government

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/realer.pdf

By your own logic, if consumer income is decreasing so should spending on video games yet that's not what were seeing. Who would have thought that an economy made up of billions of people isn't an binary function.

I don't like arguing, I like disproving false statements. Luckily I didn't have to do that this time, you've gone and disproven yourself this time.