U.S. consumer spent $1.4 billion on PC Games in 2005
According to recent research conducted by The NPD Group, 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.
The NPD Group’s research indicates that 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.
According to the research, 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.
