Total United States Spending for Video Games Comes In at 5.9 Billion Dollars

The NPD Group, which tracks the sales of the video game industry in the United States, has announced that for the first quarter of this year total spending in the country has reached 5.9 billion dollars, which is 1.5 percent more than the amount of money spent during the same period in 2010.

The NPD Group has said that 1.85 billion dollars has been created by used game sales, renting, subscription-based experiences, digital downloaded titles, mobile gaming, digitally distributed content and social networking.

That's pretty close to the 2.03 billion dollars that were created through direct spending on console and PC games that were bought from traditional retail outlets, showing a big shift in the video games industry.

Anita Frazier, who is an analyst working with the NPD Group, stated, “While the new physical retail channel still generates the majority of industry sales, our expanded research coverage allows us to assess the total consumer spend across the growing number of ways to acquire and experience gaming, including mobile apps and downloadable content.”

Traditionally, the NPD Group has focused on tracking console sales and copies of games that were sold in the traditional physical form, but lately the company has expanded its efforts and aims to also track content that is being delivered via digital means.

The 5.9 billion dollars figure is also a bit surprising taking into account that the monthly performance has often been weaker than that for the same period of 2010, as the video games company was hit by the lower disposable income of its traditional audiences and by lower sales of most home consoles.

The entire video games industry is seeing a shift to the digital space and most companies are making sure that they are creating free-to-play games, MMOs, digitally distributed products and social-powered games to prepare for the future.