There’s a new eMarketer report Social Gaming: Virtual Crops Yield Real Profits that talks about the size of the growing social games market. It’s estimated that in the U.S. that the market will be worth $2.183 Billion in 2012:
- Direct paying users generated $340 Million in 2009, which is estimated to grow to $1.191 Billion in 2012
- Offers generated $324 Million in 2009, which is estimated to grow to $868 Million in 2012
- Advertising to players of social games generated $62 Million in 2009, which is estimated to grow to $124 Million in 2012
Filed under:
2012, Micro-transactions, Social Gaming, Social Network Games, Social Network Gaming, U.S. Gaming Market, U.S.A., US Gamers, US Gaming Market, USA, Virtual goods
According to a story in Adweek today, a new report by Deloitte estimates that:
- 58% of U.S. households owned a videogame console last year
- 44% of U.S. households owned a videogame console in 2006
The story also states a significant decline in people that had played a game in the last six months. It would seem they haven’t heard of Farmville or somehow it isn’t being included considering the groups they cite with the greatest declines are the ones that have the greatest number of active social gamers. If the report is console focused, this would make sense since social gaming is creating new gamers, but also cannibalizing the time people have for console and other PC games.
GameSpot reported that NPD has released its 2009 Gamer Segmentation Report on the US games market. Key points include:
- Half of all Americans play games
- There are 32.9 Million US Console Gamers
- Extreme Gamers play games nearly 40 hours per week
- The number of gamers increased from 165.5 million to 169.9 million
- 55% of Americans play games in one form or another
- PC is the primary gaming platform for 67.3 million Americans
- 25.9 million people are Online PC Gamers
- Online PC Gamers (or what would be considered Casual Gamers) are mostly female and spend 73% of their 8 hours a week playing games online
- 17.3 million Avid PC Gamers play 23 hours a week
- 24.1 million Offline PC Gamers spend 82% of their time playing offline
According to the NPD Group, The percentage of Americans who over the last six months have:
- 63% have played a video game
- 94% have listened to music
- 53% have gone to the movies
- 10% of U.S. consumers played video games on a social network
- 5% have paid to download a video game from the Web (an increase of nearly 2% since 2008)
According to NPD’s March 2009 update to the “Entertainment Trends In America” consumer tracking study, which provides an in-depth look at U.S. entertainment consumption, the average gamer spent just over $38 per month on all types of gaming content, based on reported spending in the three months prior to March 2009.
“As with video and music, sales of physical gaming products still account for the bulk of consumer spending on video games, but digital downloads and other delivery and game-play formats are also rising in popularity,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD.
NPD’s report revealed that:
One in three gamers (31%) bought a console video game or portable game over the past 12 months – a 7% increase in traditional game purchasers compared with the year prior.
Among consumers who play console or portable games:
- 31% also played a game on a gaming website
- 12% played on a social networking site
- 19% played a game that came with their mobile phones
- 11% purchased and downloaded a game to a mobile phone
“Video games account for one-third of the average monthly consumer spending in the U.S. for core entertainment content, including music, video, games,” said Anita Frazier, video games industry analyst for NPD. “While a portion of that share stems from the premium price of console games, we’re also seeing an overall increase in the number of people participating in gaming year-over-year.”
Data note: Information was derived from The NPD Group’s “Entertainment Trends In America” consumer tracking study. The study is conducted online and is based on more than 11,000 completed responses from U.S. consumers. “Core entertainment spending” is defined as expenditures on gaming, music, home video, movies, and show/concert tickets excluding any subscription spending (e.g., cable TV, subscription movie rentals). Final survey data was weighted to represent U.S. population of individuals age 13 and older. All data was tested for statistical significance at 95% confidence level.
There is an AP article today talking about the market for games in the US, based on Pew Internet & American Life Project’s research released yesterday. Here are some data points:
- 81% of people between 18-29 play games
- 23% of of people over 65 play games
- 97% of teenagers are gamers
- 50% of women play games
- 55% of men play games
There’s more data, but these are the important points.
