Nielsen: US spending less on games, more on outdoor activities

by Griffin McElroy on Feb 19th 2011 6:00AM

Bad news, friends: We're losing. That's the only way we can digest the latest Nielsen consumer spending report, in which it was revealed that the US national entertainment budget share for games dropped from 9.3 percent in 2009 to 8.5 percent in 2010. Meanwhile, spending on activities that actually require you to cross the threshold of your home into the horrible, dangerous world (like dining out, going to parks, etc.) increased from 20.4 percent to 25.1 percent year-over-year.

Okay, so the raw dollar-amount spent on games hardly changed between the last two years -- but the average American's budget increased in 2010, and none of that new money was handed over the video game industry. Instead, people spent it on outdoor activities. Outdoors! Can you imagine? That's where animals live, you guys.

[Image credit: Nielson]

Via: Gamasutra
Source: Nielsen

Tags: business, chart, consumer, data, entertainment, industry, nielsen, sales, spending, usa

Reader Comments (54)

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/1999/9/24/

@Nicknamer Comparing Gabe & Tycho's hair now to that old strip...it's almost like they've been going Super Saiyan minus the bleach.

yes...because playing video games on the couch indoors causes obesity...;)

@sleepwheel

Not being able to put down a fork causes obesity... or bad genes.
The bad genes are the guys we DON'T pick on... or something.

Playing games just causes awesome to happen.

@sleepwheel

I fall to see your arguement... i was so busy playing games all my life that I had to be told to eat. rather that be my mother comming in and turning off the system or threatening that I won't play it till the next day if i don't stop and take a break.

...no time to eat when i was younger ^_^

@12thSAGEofGAMING
So you traded fat for lanky? Or do you hit the gym? My favorite was when one of my coworkers got addicted to WoW. He was pretty ripped, but during the time he was into WoW he only did 4 things in life: sleep, work, WoW, gym. (and work was a desk job, so, physically similar to WoW; it's possible he also slept on his desk, so that might have been like a desk job too)

This is probably only because the massive Wii craze has died off a bit.

@draknahr And WoW. If people ever stop playing.

@draknahr
At first I thought your remark was a great assessment, but the chart does say it's for video-game buying households. Since the Wii came out in like 2006, that should have died off a while ago. I don't think all those retirement homes have bought a wii game since 2008.

But look at the insidious stat right beneath the videogames stats, the cellular phones! Notice how it includes "apps". It went up almost as much videogames went down. Could this be showing a move from gaming on consoles to gaming on mobile phones?

@sigma8

That's the first thing I noticed, and I agree that it must have something to do with the expansion of smartphones.

@draknahr With no new consoles to get excited about, me-too motion controls no one cares about being the primary focus now other than sequels sequels sequels, I'm surprised purchasing hasn't dropped off MORE.

People have less money to spend and just don't want to blow it on more of the same, especially when there are thousands of fun bite sized experiences on cell phones for a dollar and hundreds of equally good games from the last few years sitting in gamestop bargain bins making that new title at $50-60 seem exorbitant. It's not that complicated.

Well it's just damn expensive to... walk in the park

@Pure Black World Tendency

Geocaching might account for some rise in money associated with outdoor activities.

That or purchases of blankets and condoms.

because going outside is a bad thing right?

Shopping is a leisure activity? Methinks this report was made by women...

Of why wouldn't people prefer spending money on something that's actually worth the value? developers now look for any reason to remove stuff that's supposed to be in a game and sell it on xbox live or psn!! I remember the good old days when after finishing a game you'll be given more stuff to make you play the game again!! nowadays they make it dlc/pre-order bonuses.. of course after playing a game once that'll be it. stupid punks!

@tekplyrx YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!

"shopping" ... way to go Nielsen, this ranks up there with your horrid television ratings

Is it sad that I can relate to this article?

@SafetyRey not to the going out part just the whole not wanting to go out and just staying in where nothing ever changes.

@SafetyRey
Yeah, Yeah its pretty sad.

I can't go out, not if I am to achieve my goal of being as white as new pillows, carrot top, and...........what the f### am I saying!?

well, that's a good thing, you lazy Americans spend too much time in front of a TV/monitor

@Cazamalos I thought that was Koreans...?

@Cazamalos

"you lazy Americans spend too much time in front of a TV/monitor"

i always thought our american media was full of bullsh!t, but i see that abroad is no different... maybe you should stick to worrying about your dental hygiene before making generalizations. If we were that lazy why do we have some of the best athletes in the world...

@Cazamalos

Shut up and watch this:

http://www.badassdigest.com/2011/02/13/cant-miss-british-film-don-you-go-rounin-roun-to-re-ro

@PR0F3TA
I definitely agree with you that americans aren't noticeably worse than most western european countries...but saying we have a lot of athletes is a bit of a red herring. I'm sure with 300 million people, any country could scrounge up a few athletes. Per capita, we're probably pretty bad compared to, say, brazil. If for no other reason than "athletes" here includes baseball and golf...whereas in Brazil it's all soccer.. :P

@PR0F3TA

How have we established he is from the UK? I'm just curious.

As for the athletes thing, I'm impartial, for every sport I can think of a different country that dominates :D

However maybe the bigger news out of this is tgat cell phone add ons(aka games in most cases) is up. So Really people aren't gsming less, theyre gaming differently.

What's really news here is that the cost of dining out has increased. Dining out and going to the park in the same category doesn't make any sense.

Dinner out, week's worth of groceries. That's usually the exchange rate for me.

when there is a new console or major game out, with all the ad money companies throw around, that game spending number will climb again.

Ugh, outside graphics are so low-res.

@Cypher FDP

time for an HD Remake!

I'm surprised Nielsen is even considered a real "source" of information anymore.

I bet the only reason people are getting out more is because of those damn Pokewalkers =)

Many of the most popular games are "free" (e.g. Facebook games like FarmVille), and many people are gaming on cell-phones and tablets.

@Cypher FDP

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d.html/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/189-7549358-4496507?a=B002V04OKO

GG.

They don't make games like they used too. Dead space is cool, but EA uses the same template for all their games. Guerrilla games, killzone might as well be on rails. And oh god...we have been getting ripped off by madden for years..point is, the feeling I felt when final fantasy 12 or MGS or zelda came out is gone. Man when I first got my head chainsawed off in resident evil 4..every other article is about telltale making remakes of nintendo games and people making us believe that this is our future. If you love vidz we are losing..too fruit ninja

My park related expenditure for fiscal year 2010 has actually DECREASED 8.3% from the year before.

I can't remember the last time I had to pay to go outside and enjoy nature around me.

Wait wait wait. So this basically shows that people spend more money shopping for everything else that isn't video games than they do shopping for video games? HOLY CRAP.

I'm pretty sure I've been spending less money on games because there's been less games I've been interested in actually buying. That and taking classes puts a big dent in my budget.

It's hardly on "Outdoor activities"

Half those things are "Out of the house" - not outdoor.

Plus it covers a ridiculous number of different things and games cover things which are only game related which is a much narrower field.

So yeah, it's amazing that it's only 2.5x more tbh.

Why does "going to the cinema" get it's own section?

@Qehb
Why did you replace "Seeing movies at a theater" with "going to the cinema"? Are you also one of those people who goes to the billiards hall and plays shuttlecock?

Food is crazy expensive in the San Francisco Bay Area. $9 for a bowl of ramen. WTF.

@GuardianLegend

You're kidding? Man, what am I doing with my life! I can buy two dozen ramen packages for $5 and sell them each for $9 if I pour hot water on them? Damn, I can be filthy rich! If I can just convince 80 people to buy my product, I can make a $220,000 profit each year doing that.

San Francisco, here I come!

I blame today's edutoons. They;s all dancing and jumping and being physically conscious. What happened to cartoons about people who like pizza too much?

@Batzarro The worlds WOrst Detect

Agree, I have to import or watch old ones myself.

For some reason, since I've exited my 20s, I've had a lot less compulsion to play video games. After I noticed about 19 titles piled up, I've managed to stop buying them as well. The long titles with excellent stories still keep my interest, but for the most part, the consoles go unused. These days, I find myself out playing soccer a lot. I'm ashamed I don't even look like a nerd anymore.

I'm curious as to how this particular line in the article is accurate "-- but the average American's budget increased in 2010." That really seems far off base around me. I see nothing but companies laying off workers left and right. Jobs going away due to businesses closing. Jobs not hiring due to the general state of the economy. So how is it that the average American's budget increased in an economy where so many people are unemployed?

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Nielsen: US spending less on games, more on outdoor activities

Reader Comments (54)

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 6:14AM Nicknamer said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 10:11AM Angry Frank said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 6:18AM sleepwheel said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 6:22AM Apsac D said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 1:13PM 12thSAGEofGAMING said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 2:27PM sigma8 said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 6:19AM draknahr said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 12:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 2:31PM sigma8 said

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Posted: Feb 20th 2011 6:56PM onan said

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Posted: Feb 19th 2011 10:05AM Cap Morgan said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 7:17AM shopping bags said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 7:22AM El Stefio said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 7:48AM tekplyrx said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 9:18AM Hank Hill said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 8:05AM picaso trigger said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 8:17AM SafetyRey said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 8:59AM SafetyRey said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 12:45PM Chanka said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 8:25AM StickyKrippy said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 9:23AM Cazamalos said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 9:29AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 11:11AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 2:11PM A Sandwich said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 2:33PM sigma8 said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 3:41PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 9:44AM LoneStarDawg said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 10:15AM MasterYogurt said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 10:16AM ructus said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 10:42AM Cypher FDP said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 11:12AM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 10:54AM Tyran said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 11:05AM erh said

Posted: Feb 20th 2011 12:37AM KindaOdd said

Posted: Feb 19th 2011 11:15AM superskrull4 said

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