The United States collectively spent $14.8 billion on video games in 2012.
That's according to estimates from The NPD Group, which released its annual tally on Tuesday. That figure incorporates all possible spend on video game software: physical and digital, new and used, rented and permanent, full games and pieces of content. It does not, however, include hardware and accessories.
While $14.8 billion is nothing to scoff at, that figure is down from a year ago: the estimate for 2011 is $16.34 billion, meaning that Americans spent 9 percent less in 2012.
That entire $1.54 billion difference is more than explained by 2012's rough year for physical, boxed games, which saw a 22 percent -- or $2.03 billion -- decline in 2012. Digital sales are on the rise -- up 16 percent from $5.09 billion to $5.92 billion -- but it wasn't enough to make up for retail's performance in a rough transitional year.
The following numbers were provided by the NPD Group as part of its "2012 Games Market Dynamics: U.S." report:- Total Physical (new, used, rental) $8.88B (from $11.25B, -21%)
- Digital: $5.92B (from $5.09B, +16%)
- Total: $14.80B (from $16.34B, -9%)
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Cut & paste error there - and I'm not sure if the percentage is the wrong one, or the actual dollar amount.
This is so comical, it's like the movie industry not counting DVD and Blu-ray sales and rentals. And yet the large investors and market analysts just eat this stuff up. What's going to happen when nearly all purchases are digital via all sorts of portals that refuse to give NPD access to their sales data? In 10 years you'll be able to use the NPD numbers to support some outrageous claim like "Video game sales are down 92% over the last 10 years."
How many gamers are there in the US?
Is the actual market shrinking, or simply a segment of it?