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We know that time and money spent on video games is surging due to the pandemic. Now, industry-tracking firm The NPD Group is providing detail on where that growth is coming from. And it turns out that people across all age demographics are playing more games more often. That’s big for mobile games, but it also includes Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox.
In its “2020 Evolution of Entertainment” report, NPD found that 4-out-of-5 consumers in the U.S. played a game in the last six months. More important for the industry, those consumers are spending 26% more time and 33% more money on games than the same period in the previous year.
From The NPD Group's 2020 Evolution of Entertainment report. Check out the increases in time spent gaming across different age ranges driven by pandemic-driven behavior changes. And pubs and devs, please note the 35+ jumps. pic.twitter.com/7oWBUJDS1b
— Mat Piscatella (@MatPiscatella) November 30, 2020
But this isn’t just coming from young people. Older demographics are turning to games more often as they find themselves with money they can no longer spend on dining out or attending live events.
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Spending on video games for Americans 45 years old-to-54 years old increased 76%. People age 55-to-64 increased their spending 29%.
“This year, video games is one of the most consistent growth categories in terms of overall participation and investment relative to 2019,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. “This may simply reflect an acceleration of trends that were in effect prior to the pandemic. If this is the case, then the gaming market could experience continued growth without a post-pandemic pullback. If not, however, we may see a post-pandemic valley before returning to growth. It all rests on engagement.”
While mobile is a big factor in increased spending, consoles are also on the rise. And it could be easier to keep those players engaged now that they’ve already made the investment in the hardware.
NPD will report the results of its video game sales tracking for November by the middle of next month.
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