Digital Game Sales: Gamers Favoring Online Stores Instead Of Retail
Nearly three-fourths (74 percent) of game sales in the U.S. market now come from digital storefronts, the Entertainment Software Association’s annual Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry showed Wednesday.
The report noted the number of gamers who regularly bought games digitally has increased steadily. The percentage of gamers who bought digital content (defined as downloadable content, full versions of games, subscriptions, mobile apps and Facebook games) rose from 31 percent in 2010 to 74 percent in 2016.
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The news fits in with larger trends in the gaming industry as more gamers have taken advantage of increasing console storage capacity and digital storefronts to buy their games. This trend has also come in the face of declining game sales from traditional brick and mortar retailers.
The figure fits in with increasing overall gains for the games industry, the report said. Gamers spent an estimated $24.5 billion on games content in 2016, continuing a steady increase since 2010 and following a mark of $23.2 billion in 2015. Adding on hardware and accessory purchases, consumers spent $30.4 billion.
Elsewhere, the report also provides some context on virtual reality technology. While adoption rates for virtual reality are still low — 15 percent of gamers polled said they’ve used VR in the past year — the appeal of the nascent technology is still growing.
Read: Sony Has Sold Almost One Million PlayStation VR Units
More than 90 percent of VR headset owners said they’re satisfied with their purchases and one in three gamers said they were likely to buy a VR headset in 2017. VR on home consoles is still in its early stages, but Sony released its PlayStation VR headset last fall, and Microsoft is exploring virtual and augmented technology on its upcoming Project Scorpio Xbox One update.
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