New, boxed games lose out in US market

NPD’s Games Industry: Total Consumer Spend report has claimed new, boxed game sales in the US accounted for the minority of the market in Q2 2011.

In total $1.44bn was spent by US consumers on new, physical console and PC games in the period.

In contrast, the combined spend on used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile games is estimated at $1.74bn.

In total the Q2 market was worth $4.5bn, up one per cent year-on-year.

"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," NPD analyst Anita Frazier explained.

"Through a combination of point-of-sale and consumer research tracking, The NPD Group is providing an expanded, more comprehensive measure of a dynamic and rapidly evolving games industry.”

NPD will next year expand its emerging market data to cover the UK, France and Germany.