NPD Mid Year Report

$19.5 Billion has Been Spent on Video Games In The USA Halfway Through 2018

Thanks to the latest information from NPD Group we have learned that gamer’s across the United States have spent over $19.5 billion on video game products and that’s just in the first 6 months of the year. This is a 40% increase from the first 6 months of 2017, with a very large increase in hardware spending which is up 21% since last year bringing it to $1.7 billion. NPD Group cited that Xbox One and Nintendo’s plug and play devices have been a huge reason behind this trend.  Especially since the NES Classic was the best selling hardware in June’s NPD. The largest source of revenue for the industry continues to be on the actual games and not the hardware. Spending on games, subscription based services, DLC and microtransactions drove the year over year spending up by a whopping 43% to $16.9 billion. This figure represents spending across PC, console and mobile platforms.

NPD details that mobile saw the largest growth in spending due in large parts to games like Fortnite, Roblox and PUBG grew the mobile market, while casual classics like Candy Crush continued to push the ceiling on mobile spending.  Far Cry 5 and God of War have done a huge push in software sales for the first half of this year in terms AAA console releases.

Gaming accessories have also been selling gangbusters thanks in large to the success of Fortnite in the casual market.  Accessories sales have grown 41% since 2017 with actual headset and headphone sales actually doubling their figures from last year.

With still the holiday season to go, it is safe to say we are in one of the healthiest times for the gaming industry as a whole. With all companies having record years, and with a packed game lineup for this holiday, it should be interesting to see what the final numbers are for the year.

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