A survey taking in 13,000 gamers shows just what games we are spending our money on, with surprising growth in both MMOs and mobile gaming. TNS and Gamesindustry.com conducted the survey in the Summer and has been leaking out details over the past two months and this week summarized findings in a release and put out a free copy of the report summary. Gamers took part in the survey from the Netherlands, France, Germany, the UK, Belgium, and the US. The full report costs €2,995.
If the US is seen as ahead of the other markets (and that’s not necessarily the case) there is going to be a huge number of gamers playing and paying for MMOs. Some 20% of those interviewed in the US said they regularly played MMOs, compared with less than half that number in the UK and most other countries, and 51% of those US players who played MMOs, paid money for the privilege, compared with 38% in the UK. So in future expect more MMO players, with more paying money.
Much the same is true on gaming portals with 47% of US gamers playing on them compared to 32% in the UK and 26% in Germany (the lowest) and of these 33% pay to play in the US while only 20% pay in the UK and 24% in Germany. Assuming that these trends will gradually shift to Europe, we can expect to see an increasing amount of the gaming wallet spent online in the coming years. Unfortunately because this report has no previous results to compare with, we cannot be sure that this is a trend that is rising over time. We’ll see if it is repeated next year.
The survey shows that spending on game portals, Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) and mobile phones now accounts for 16% of the ‘total games wallet’ in the UK market. These three categories come up to only 23% in the US, with the online channels way ahead and curiously the mobile one behind, at only 3%.
Overall, console games, including second-hand trade and digital distribution, still take the largest share of wallet in the UK, at 64%, and the US is perhaps a year or two ahead of us and this figure is down to 57% there (see graphic below).
The report makes the point that traditionally games revenues are measured through retail sales, either in high-street or online stores. New game platforms, second-hand trade, digital distribution and the rise of online business models and payment methods, make it increasingly difficult to get insight into the total budget consumers spend on games if you look at it purely from a retail point of view. Money is increasingly being spent on buying monthly subscriptions and on online credit for buying things in-game. Monthly subscriptions for game portals and MMO’s are by far the most popular method of spending online, and downloading and paying for premium games from game portals is also relatively popular.