NPD: 14% of US households have online game subscriptions
by Alexander Sliwinski 
on Nov 17th 2009 3:00PM
NPD's latest update to its "Entertainment Trends in America" report finds that 14 percent of Americans have an "online gaming" subscription. We contacted NPD for a better explanation of what that exactly encompasses; a representative explained it includes "Xbox Live paid subscription, online gaming website paid subscription, MMOG (game specific) paid subscription and online video game rental service." For comparison, the 2008 figure was 13 percent.
Interestingly, 81 and 76 percent of households have cable and internet subscriptions, respectively. Meanwhile, both newspapers and magazines experienced a 2 percent drop in subscriptions. The company found that "monthly per-capita entertainment-content subscription" spending rose to $115, a 7 percent increase from last year. Some could argue that people doing that in this economy is surprising, then again, in this economy, home entertainment would seem the most cost-effective solution for having fun.
