In today’s increasingly digital world where information can be accessed in seconds, gamers do not want to waste a second before getting their hands on the latest releases. In 2018, a record ** percent of all computer and video games were sold in digital form, meaning that, once the game is downloaded, it is immediately ready to play. In contrast, only ** percent of video games were sold in physical form. This is a dramatic turnaround from less than a decade earlier, when ** percent of video games were sold as physical copies.
Digital gamers
The digital gaming industry is a continually growing market. The number of gamers playing downloaded games in the United States is expected to grow from *** million in 2017 to ***** million in 2023, and similar growth is expected for mobile and online games. In the same timeframe, the revenue generated from downloaded games is due to increase from just under **** billion U.S. dollars to over *** billion U.S. dollars.
Downloadable content
A big draw of the digital gaming market is the ability to download extra content for games and other apps at the push of a button. This DLC market was valued at *** billion U.S. dollars in 2011, but is expected to almost quadruple to **** billion U.S. dollars by 2020. While gamers worldwide unsurprisingly spend the most amount of money on full download games, the average amount spent on in-game downloads is almost as high. Some of the leading reasons for spending hard-earned cash on in-game purchases and downloadable content include being able to buy things that give the gamer an advantage in the game and the ability to level up more quickly.
