Australians spent more than $3 billion on video game software and hardware in 2017, the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA) announced today. Sales from physical retailers amounted to $1.176 billion, while digital sales hit $2.054 billion. Those are increases of 11 percent and 9 percent respectively. In all, that comes to $3.23 billion for the year, which represents an increase of nine percent.For home consoles specifically, sales jumped by 36 percent during the year. The Nintendo Switch had a `strong debut` following its launch in March, the IGEA said, while Nintendo`s SNES and NES systems also `performed well.` On the games side, and in a clear sign of the times, full-game digital sales jumped 17 percent compared to 2016`s figures. Additionally, `digital extras,` which we imagine to be things like DLC packs and microtransactions, rose by 12 percent compared to last year.According to research company Telsyte, subscription revenue was also a bright spot, rising 14 percent, thanks in part to growth in PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live subscriptions. For digital games specifically, mobile games dominated of course, bringing in more than $1 billion in revenue in Australia during the year.`Despite the huge amount of entertainment options available to Australians, the appetite for games shows no signs of waning, evidenced by growth across the entire industry,` IGEA CEO Ron Curry said in a statement. `In 2017, we saw gamers embrace new and updated consoles. At the same time, there was lots of love shown and nostalgia for old favourites - both hardware and games. Australians enjoy buying products in-store, where they can seek out hands-on experiences and advice from retail staff, and similarly they are very comfortable downloading full games and additional content.`By comparison, US video game industry revenue came out to $36 billion in 2017. Like Australia, the US saw year-over-year increases in revenue from game and hardware sales. Australia`s population ...
|
