TOTAL U.S. CONSUMER SPENDING ON PC GAMES REACHED $1.4 BILLION IN 2005

NPD: Research Designed to Better Capture Sales of Digital Downloads and Online Subscriptions. Total U.S. consumer spending on PC Games reached $1.4 billion in 2005. Of this total, online subscriptions to PC games and gaming web sites were estimated to account for $344 million. The research, which was designed to better capture sales of digital downloads and, for the first time, online subscriptions, also addressed gamer demographics, such as the ages of online and casual game subscribers.

Paid game-specific subscriptions, such as those allowing online play of massively multiplayer games like World of Warcraft, reached approximately $292 million in 2005, with about 1.4 million paid subscribers. The research also found empirical evidence of a growing trend in online subscriptions.

paid casual gaming sites, such as those allowing users unlimited play of a variety of games from services like Pogo.com or RealOne Arcade, reached sales of $52 million in 2005 with about 1.05 million paid subscribers, while casual online gamers pay an average of just under $5 per month. There are fewer paid casual game subscribers than there are game-specific subscribers, with the highest percentage of gamers in both categories being in the 25-34 age range, at 30 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

Appears to be a decline in PC game sales, critical developments in the PC games industry, specifically the Internet, is fundamentally changing the PC software industry. With the increase in high speed Internet access, not only are users purchasing their games online, they are also willingly paying additional recurring fees over and above the price of the game to subscribe to services that let them play with others online.

The casual game space continues to show potential by broadening the PC game audience, giving companies the opportunity to drive revenue from non-traditional audiences. For example, the ratio of female to male online gaming subscribers varied greatly when comparing game-specific to casual gaming, with only 29 percent of females being game-specific subscribers versus 49 percent found to be casual game subscribers. Age is also an important factor, with 87% of casual game players being 25 or older, while 55% of game-specific subscribers are 34 or younger.

U.S. consumer spending on PC Games

Publ 20060525