US videogames market 2008

NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier, 2009 DICE Summit: As of 2008, 58 percent of the U.S. population aged 13 and over plays video games. "Amongst every dollar spent on entertainment, video games have the most share," said Frazier, and this translates to 27 percent of each entertainment dollar spent in 2008.One area which NPD has been having trouble with is digital downloads, but they did reveal some information. "PC game sales at retail have declined by over 50 percent in the last seven years," she said, but NPD does track subscriptions, which showed them that PC gaming is at least twice what retail shows.Though Frazier reminded us that this was a very rough estimate, NPD guesses that the total content picture for the game industry, including PC and console, might include non-retail sales of $2.3 billion overall, and retail sales of $11.7 billion."Online gaming has increased two percentage points from last year," she added, and within the console space, she revealed that of "the top three systems used for online play, it’s the Xbox 360, followed by the Wii, followed by the PS3. Last year, the PS2 was in the second spot."As a point of triumph for the industry, Frazier revealed new data that just arrived in her inbox last night. "The number of people gaming this year has increased to 61 percent [of the U.S. population]," she said. "The industry has gained an additional six million gamers over the last year.""About half of unit sales are for kids 17 and under," she added. "The retail market is very dominated by young people." The audience is 72 percent male, but women control "about half the spending in video games," says Frazier, reminding us that casual and more family-oriented games are spurring industry growth.

Gamasutra Feb 09

Vidgame software sales see double-digit spike in 2008

While taking a slide in Japan, US and UK video game sales are up according to the latest data released in the Top Global Markets integrated monthly report derived from The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Limited and Enterbrain POS data. The three market research firms have combined their vidgame software unit sales data for the world's three largest gaming markets. The resulting report shows unit sales across the three regions were up by 11% in 2008, totaling 409.9 million units. The overall number, however, doesn't reflect the fact that unit sales were up by 15% and 26% in the US and the UK, respectively, while Japanese sales were down by 13%, largely as a result of the decline in portable and console software sales in the country. The PS2 software market in Japan saw a 46% decrease in unit sales in 2008 - even sales for the popular Nintendo DS were down, though new-gen consoles (PS3, Wii and Xbox 360) saw positive year-over-year growth. Meanwhile, the UK experienced the largest aggregate and category growth, with console software sales enjoying a 38% increase and portable software sales increasing by 6%. State-side, console software sales spiked 22% with portable software sales moving up by 2%. Kid games are also topping the charts, as the report found that three of Nintendo's family-friendly titles in 2008, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros: Brawl were in the top five games of 2008. KIDSCREEN FEB 09