2020 Video Game Spending Hits Record $56.9 Billion
Video game spending in the US video game industry reached an all-time high of $56.9 billion in 2020, up 2.5% from a year ago, according to data from the National Association of Game Publishers (NAGP). Spending on video games in America, the world’s second-largest gaming industry, reached a new record of more than $57.7 billion last year and $58.2 billion this year, up 5% from the previous year and up 4.6% from 2016. Spending on video games in the United States reached $52.8 billion in 2016, an 18.4% increase from the previous year and a 3.3% increase this month when compared with the years – the old period and the previous year.
There was a 25% increase in December alone compared to last December, and video game spending looks set to end 2020 at a record high of $56.9 billion, up 2.5% from the previous year and 4.6% from 2016.
It’s the first time since 2012, the year Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were released. Titles hit a record high of $2.7 billion, up 2% from the previous year and 3.5% from the same period last year, with Nintendo releasing games with a 4.2% increase in 2020 and PS4 titles with a 5.4% increase.
It is also worth noting that in-app purchases are an increasingly important part of the gaming industry, with GlobalWebIndex reporting that more than half of all Internet users aged 16 – 64 bought games – in the last month alone. This is cited as evidence that players are buying more titles via digital downloads.
According to GlobalWebIndex, Internet users spent more than $83 billion on online games in the first quarter of this year, up from $60 billion a year ago. Similarly, Statista reports that Americans’ “spending on video games has reached a record $10.86 billion. Hardware sales rose 38% year-on-year to $1.35 billion, and spending on key console games rose 37%, or $4.5 billion, in 2016. In the same comparison, spending on games played on high-performance PCs rose 56 percent to more than $567 million.
The PlayStation 5 set the sales record for the PlayStation platform in December, and the second place – dollar sales in 2020. It was beaten by its predecessor in unit sales, but its predecessor beat it in unit sales, leading to a $1.2 billion increase in revenue in the first quarter of 2016.
Some sources said they expect global ad spending to rise 7.6% to $612 billion by 2020, with digital media growing 10.4%. WARC predicted in a November 2020 report that global ad spending will fall 10% ($2.2 billion) to $557.3 billion in 2020 compared with 2019 results.
Nintendo has done so well that we also have a table of the top 20 games for 2020, and Nintendo saw a strong December 2020 as its best-selling game, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, was released by Nintendo. Such games spent $7.7 billion in December 2019, compared with the same month in 2019, while hardware spending rose to $1.35 billion, or 38%, no doubt spurred by the release of the Nintendo Switch, the world’s most expensive console.
December spending was “significantly higher,” Nintendo chief executive Reggie Fils-Aime said on Twitter. Spending in January was significantly higher, “John Carmack, Nintendo of America’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, said via Twitter, and Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft Corporation’s president and CEO, said on Twitter that spending in November and December was significantly higher than the previous record of $56.9 billion. Spending in February was significantly higher than the $57.5 billion spent last year, “Nintendo Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer Jack Kirby said via Twitter. Spending in October and November was substantially higher, “Nintendo CEO and Sony Pictures Entertainment President Michael E. Siegel, Jr., and Microsoft CEO Michael A. K. Zander both said via Twitter.
Mat Piscatella of the NPD group tweeted a graphic showing how much was spent on video games including hardware, software, and accessories in December alone.
The real surprise on the list is Cyberpunk 2077,The game probably doesn’t have enough time to grow or get into trouble, but overall it seems to be a reasonably good year for the video game market. SuperData reports rising revenue and reports that the number of video games in the US is reaching $4.5 billion in revenue.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare was the second best-selling game of the year, and Cold War is the top-selling game on the PlayStation 4, while it is the second-best-selling game on the PlayStation 4. Cyberpunk 2077 debuted as the best-selling game in the United States and the third best-selling game on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita. It is also the fourth bestseller on the Xbox One, the fifth best-seller on the PS4, the sixth best seller on the Wii U or the seventh best-selling game for Xbox 360 and PS3.
