ESA: Games industry responsible for $5 billion of US economy
by Alexander Sliwinski 
on Aug 10th 2010 2:30PM
A study commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association (
ESA) found that the video game industry added about $5 billion to the US economy in 2009. The report, "Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2010 Report" [
PDF link], claims the industry directly employs about 32,000 people in the States and indirectly employs 120,000 (
GameStop employees, video game media, manufacturing and distribution). The average industry employee has an annual compensation of $89,781 -- of course, there's a
wide range in that average.
A whopping 41 percent, or 13,041 of industry employees, call California home. Texas and Washington are the next closest, with 3,307 and 2,987 (approximately 10 percent apiece), respectively. The annual growth rate of the industry exceeded 10 percent between 2005 and 2009, which is good -- especially when taking the last few years of
bad employment news into account.
