Gamers in the United States spent $15.39 billion on games in 2013, up by 1 percent from 2012, according to new research published by the NPD Group.
Digital content (full-game sales, DLC, subscriptions, mobile games, and social network games) made up the lion’s share of that amount, accounting for $7.22 billion.
This strong growth for digital content helped offset an 11 percent decline in new physical sales, the NPD Group said.
Breaking down that figure, gamers spent $6.34 billion on new physical and PC games, while they shelled out $1.83 billion for used games and rentals.
Thanks to the big debuts of next-gen consoles the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, hardware sales were up 5 percent compared to 2012. Combining hardware and content sales, 2013 saw a 2 percent overall increase in total consumer spending over 2012.
“The bottom line is that the overall games market is growing,” NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “NPD reported declines in content and hardware spending in both 2011 and 2012, so the growth in 2013 is a positive indicator for future market growth as we enter the first full year with all three new consoles on the market.”
Source: Gamespot