Digital games make 3 times more than physical!

Digital games has made nearly three times as much as their physical counterparts in terms of profit in USA in 2016, according to a recent research carried out by the Entertainment Software Association. This report suggests that 74% of game sales came from subscriptions, digital full games and DLCs, mobile apps, and social network games. The rest came from traditional physical copies of games. Both of them combined brought about $24.5 billion. There were also $3.7 billion from hardware and $2.2 billion from VR, a new addition recently.

Since 2010, the year digital purchases became the new trend, digital games have been making the larger proportion of game sales each year. Back then, the digital:physical split was 31:69, but that has complete changed now. Total amount of money spent has also increased during that period. However, in the UK, physical games still make up almost 50% of all revenue from games and related contents. That is what GameIndustry found out from their research. But the number is fast declining for physical copies over there as well.

Blake Jorgensen, EA’s CFO, said back in November 2016 that he thought buying physical copies of games from a traditional store would soon be history. His reason was that, like everything else, people would opt for convenience to themselves, and digital purchases offer just that. Also in the report, 67% of US households have a device for the purpose of playing video games in their house. Also, the average age of gamers is currently 35. Surprisingly, graphics is the most important factor in deciding to buy a game, at 65%, more than price (65%) and story/setting (59%)!

Digital games: The future of game sale

It is undeniable that digital games will be the future of purchases. With its convenience, it will only become more popular. Do you prefer buying digitally, or going to a store for a boxed title?