The NPD Group, the top game-industry research firm has released figures of the total amount spent on video game products in the United States over the course of the past year. The company has revealed that US consumers shelled out between $15.0 to $15.25 on video games in both physical media and digital sales during 2009.
NPD Groups breaks down the spending into the following two categories:
$10.5 billion on physical media: This includes purchasing new, physical copies of games. The figures do include money spent on social gaming titles that make use of micro-transactions.
$4.5 to $4.75 billion on other channels: This includes used games, rentals, subscriptions, digital full game downloads and downloadable content such as map packs. The amount also includes transactions of mobile game applications.
"Our expanded estimate of consumer spending reflects the growing number of options to purchase, acquire and interact with video games ranging from GameFly rentals to iPod Touch game apps," said Anita Frazier, analyst at the NPD group. "Consumer spending on social network games like those offered by Facebook would push this estimate even higher."
The data was pulled from point-of-sale tracking, consumer research and figures gathered by NPD Group retail and its publisher partners.
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