NPD: Number of US mobile gamers surpasses core, totals down

Jessica Conditt — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 08:15:00 EST

There are 211.5 million people playing games in the United States, a loss of 12 million players (5 percent) from 2011's numbers, the NPD reports. Not all of the gaming categories lost players, however: Mobile gamers rose 9 percentage points to take 22 percent, and digital gamers gained 4 percentage points to 16 percent. This makes mobile gamers the largest audience segment, surpassing core gamers, which held the top spot in 2011.

The remaining categories - core, family and kid, light PC, and avid PC gamers - lost 17.4 million people this year. This is a "slight decline," the NPD says.

"Given the long lifecycles of the current consoles and the increasing installed base of smartphones and tablets, it's not surprising to see a slight decline in the core gamer segment," Anita Frazier, industry analyst for the NPD, says. "It's the revenue contribution of the core gamer segment that continues to outpace all other segments, and remains vital to the future of the industry."

People buying games spent an average of $48 on physical copies and $16 on digital games from June to August. Core gamers spent the most on physical games, at $65. Almost 14 percent of all gamers purchased microtransactions or additional game content in the past three months, up from 11 percent in the same period in 2011; 27 percent of core gamers and 23 percent of digital gamers purchased in-game content.

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NPD: Number of US mobile gamers surpasses core, totals down originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NPD monthly reports integrate Walmart data starting next month

Ben Gilbert — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:45:00 EST

Every month, the NPD Group releases a report on the previous month's US sales in the game industry, both consoles and software. While that monthly report is already "projected to 100% of the market," according to NPD Group's David Riley, next month, it'll get bolstered by the nation's largest retailer: Walmart. Despite being revealed this past February, the past several months of NPD reports haven't included Walmart's numbers.

"Our enhanced retail coverage, including the addition of several new retailers, begins with May data released on Thursday, June 14," Riley told me in an email yesterday. While he couldn't supply a list of all of the retailers involved, he told me, "Yes, it does include Walmart."

With any luck, the addition of Walmart to NPD's stable of retailers reporting - which already includes America's largest game retailer, GameStop - will help to thwart claims of NPD being a "very poor indicator of the industry's performance." Then again, between the lack of digital sales accounted for in NPD's monthly report and the urge of publishers to spin poor sales numbers, those complaints likely won't stop anytime soon.

NPD monthly reports integrate Walmart data starting next month originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 24 May 2012 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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