Research from the 2012 Games Market Dynamics from The NPD Group, a global information company, has revealed that a total of $14.80 billion were spent on video game content in the United States for 2012.
Further analyzing that number, $7.09 billion was spent on new physical game software, while used and rental expenditures reached $1.79 billion. Content in digital format, including full game and add-on downloads, subscriptions, mobile games, and social network games, generated $5.92 billion.
“When including all other forms of content spending outside of new physical games, the 2012 U.S. games market was more than twice as large as the total spending on new physical games alone,” said Liam Callahan, industry analyst for The NPD Group. “There were divergent trends when looking at content spending in 2012 as a whole, with a decrease of 21 percent in spending on physical content while digital content spending grew 16 percent; both formats combined for a total decline of 9 percent for the year.”
On the whole, the industry has been slumping in terms of sales. However, that could change this year as many are expected both Sony and Microsoft to unveil new consoles. Sony is expected to announce a new PlayStation console at an event on February 20.
