US digital spending up in March

Digital games spending in the US saw a significant year-on-year increase last month, analyst firm Superdata has announced.

Superdata’s March 2014 report reveals the US digital games market brought in $936m in sales during the period, up 9 per cent from March 2013.

The report points not to social and mobile offerings, but rather hardcore titles for the upswing. Games such as Titanfall and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft are reestablishing the industry’s focus on traditional core gamers, and digital is quickly becoming the preferred distribution method for consumers.

The research firm added that social and mobile platforms are beginning to soften and saturate,” and indicated little faith in the below-industry standard conversion rates for Zynga in particular.

Superdata also specifically laid out data on Candy Crush Saga publisher King. The company noted a 1.2 per cent increase in spending compared to February; but also a 2 per cent drop in social players and a mobile user base that showed no growth during the period.