US spends R35-billion on video games in 3 months

If we know one thing about the US, it’s that they love their video games. With a population of 317-million, the US is one of the largest video gaming markets, and so it is interesting to evaluate the overall health of the industry by looking at how the US market performs.

According to the Q3 2013 Games Market Dynamics: U.S. report from global market research company, The NPD Group, US$1.30 billion was spent by US consumers on new physical video and PC game software during the third quarter (July – September) of 2013 (Q3’13).

The total consumer spend on other physical forms of content (used and rental) reached $436 million, and content in digital format (full game and add-on content downloads, subscriptions, mobile games and social network games) generated $1.72 billion in the same period.

The total US consumer spend on gaming products for Q3’13 is $3.45-billion (±R35-billion).

“Jimmy! Get back inside and play more video games!”

Content spending

The third quarter of 2013 experienced double-digit growth in content spending, stemming from a 20 percent increase in spending for new physical games coupled with a 35 percent growth in digital full games and downloadable content (DLC). These two acquisition types combined to create a total of close to $1.98 billion in consumer content spending, versus $1.59 billion generated in Q3’12. Total content spending experienced an increase of 17 percent.

While new physical games, digital full games, and DLC were major drivers of the volume of this quarter’s increase, all other areas of content spending also increased with the exception of social network gaming which continued to decline.

Liam Callahan, industry analyst:

“Trends during the third quarter were the best that we have observed since the second quarter of 2011, driven by growth across both the physical and digital sides of the video game industry. The launch of Grand Theft Auto V helped propel the new physical sales by twenty percent and continued growth of console digital full games as well as downloadable add-on content is an indication of the renewed health of the industry. We expect that the launches of Microsoft’s Xbox One and the Sony PS4 will continue to fuel consumer excitement and spending for games heading into the holiday season.”

We just love some good DLC

Methodology

The estimates are published in NPD’s report, Games Market Dynamics: U.S. – released by The NPD Group in November 2013.

The estimates are derived leveraging NPD’s portfolio of physical POS tracking (Retail Tracking Service) and consumer research including the Games Acquisition Monitor, Video Game and PC Game Subscriptions Report, and Consumer Tracking Service.

It also incorporates consumer spend estimation provided by NPD retail and publisher partners, and calibration with third-party sources.