Gamers are buying more titles as downloads, showing the convenience of simply clicking rather than going out (or waiting for the mail) to get physical copies of games. That's the finding that data firm NPD Group, which tracks physical and download sales of video games, released in a report today (Nov. 21). It shows that game sales in the third quarter of 2013 were $3.45 billion, up 17 percent over the same time period in 2012..
The download part of video games sold $1.72 billion versus physical product sales of $1.3 billion, with physical up 20 percent and digital up 35 percent compared to the same period last year.
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“Trends during the third quarter were the best that we have observed since the second quarter of 2011, driven by growth across both the physical and digital [download] sides of the video game industry,” said Liam Callahan, industry analyst, in NPD’s statement. “The launch of Grand Theft Auto V helped propel the new physical sales by twenty percent and continued growth of console digital full games as well as downloadable add-on content is an indication of the renewed health of the industry.”
NPD did note that all areas of game content spending had increased sales, save for social networking games, which declined.
The holiday season is usually a crucial selling period for games, especially this year with the release of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Preorders of both consoles sold out.
Source: NPD Group
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