With an estimate:How much money have you put into your video game hobby lifetime?

Maybe 8 years ago I decided to figure out how much money I have spent in a lifetime. I know I will not be able to come to a reality number,but I was interested to find out prices I spent years earlier on games,magazines, consoles, rentals, etc ......So at the time of a almost a decade ago, I figured I spent a ballpark figure of $32.000.It has costed more since then I know.But it was interesting to do research for prices back when.

So gamers,what's your estimate?

Yum a pissing contest.

Lol, that may not be too far off. Well, okay, it's pretty far off but TBH, I have no idea. :P

Not as much as I spent on cigarettes over the 20 years I smoked for. Not touch one in 4 years though.

Game wise £1000’s

Twice as long for me. Quit smoking doing it cold turkey twice, both times for over three years and both times I went back to smoking like a big dummy. :(

"SP slaps himself upside the head" :P

@SecretPolice: I listened to an audiobook called Allen Cars easyway to quit smoking and it was like a Switch was flipped in my head.

Went from smoking a 50g pouch if GV a week to nothing virtually overnight and honestly not had the slightest craving since. Best thing I ever did.

Good luck if you try again.

Ridiculous amounts. But there's worse ways you can spend your money.

Including games for 30 years? No idea.. I have owned 6 different pc throughout the years(and a amiga, a c64, a PS3 and a switch )

And a low estimate would probaly be around 800-1000 games so yeah a lot... but worse way to spend your money I guess:)

Last year alone I bought a PSVR, two Switches, Xbox One S and Xbox One X + all the games for each console. So... too much?

If we only count games.

10k, easily.

Probably about 40k around that.

Not much if i look what my other hobby is costing me, i probably spend a good 5+ grand on it each year.

Don't know. The hobby is a time and money waster.

Dude I couldn't enough imagine how much I've spent. I'm sure it's a ridiculous amount.

But I don't feel bad about it, it's my main hobby other than working out. Other than that, I'm pretty cheap.

I think you mean this is just some good ol' dickmeasuring lol.

I'm honestly not sure but I estimate between my own spending and my parents spending... probably 15K USD.

I think a better question is will people's insane fascination for this hobby ever materialize? Like will there be a resurgence of old school games and your collections of cartridges will just simply turn into gold?

I think it's possible.

10.000-25.000

I dunno, that's just a rough estimate.

Been buying consoles, handhelds, PCs and games since I earned my first dough.

well if we talk about me spending specifically that would start with Dreamcast since that was around college graduation and I was getting my own money.

if you add the consoles: DC, PS2, GC, Wii, PS3, WiiU, GBA, PSP-that is about $1000 all told

Peripherals-fightsticks, classic controllers, etc,-that is also about $1000

Games-no idea but I'm pretty cheap and buy my stuff used. Probably about $700

So not counting stuff like headsets, diy desks, furniture(gaming chairs) I'd say around $3k.

I would guess I spent about $2,500 per year on gaming on average. (This includes PC and system upgrades). Since gaming is my only real hobby, I think it is not all that much.

I'm pretty cheap, so at most probably only $200-300 a year in average years. Sometimes even less. I might buy 2 or 3 "new" games a year, and then a bunch of super cheap digital games. Though I'm sure there have been years I've broken $1000 (i.e. if i buy a console or two). So over time, as I've been gaming for like 20+ years, I'm sure it's many thousands of dollars if not $10,000+.

But in terms of the games I buy, I've historically spent more on movies than games.

I don't want to think about it. But the answer is probably too much.

Absolutely no idea and couldn't even begin to guess. I was probably about 10 when I first used my 'own' money to buy something gaming related, that was 37 years ago.

I once had a $50k a year drug habbit. Since I quit I find video games a lot cheaper.

NOWHERE NEAR as much as my muscle car hobby. Not even close.

if I include money spent on building/upgrading comptuers, well over 20k I would imagine

given how much time I spend gaming and how much enjoyment I get out of it, I have zero regrets

I do recall from the beginning of Doom to the end of Battlefield 2, I had multiple gaming PCs for LAN-fests. Minimum was two, usually three. I also had one, sometimes two, consoles as well.

Then, I also had alternative platforms such as the Commodore Amiga and the rare Mac.

- back then, there was no such thing as a low-cost Mac. If someone wanted one, expect to spend $4k-$5k. PCs were also expensive, usually in the $1.5k to $2.5k. CPUs alone cost $500 and up. That's why I turned to the Amiga. It's the only decent computer that sold for less than $1k.

My gaming seems to be winding down. I'm perfectly fine to stick with one platform (PC) and single-player games nowadays.

I don't see it as waste. When I wasted money was when I wasn't gaming. Friday and Saturday nights were about going out with friends, buying dinner for myself, going clubbing, buying drinks, or seeing movies. I got tired of all that. If I can spend $20 or even $60 on a game that occupies that free time for even a weekend or two or even a month, I'm already coming out ahead.

What's really worth considering is my job, I work a normal work week, use my weekends to relax, chill, make a dent in my backlog, whatever. If I take those two or three days each week and picked up part time jobs instead, how much extra money would I have? Of course, I wouldn't have any time for myself to repair my body and mind or free time to spend the money I make, but it would be substantial net gain.

Out of all my hobbies gaming is the least expensive ..... I don’t know how many quarters it took me to master Pacman or Donkey Kong but I bet they were a lot.

24 years old

Been paying for my games since age 14. Never full price. So im guessing $5k. Id buy 3 games for $50 and i rarely buy consoles at full price (except the PS3 500 Euro)

I've been purchasing games with my own funds since I was around 12, so in total about 17 years. I can say precisely how much I've spent since 2012 when I first started keeping a running spreadsheet, but overall I'd estimate it's somewhere in the realm of $20k total.

618 games on Steam at about 25 dollar average cost = 15,450 dollars

Unknown amount across Origin, GoG, and some other platforms.

WoW subscription for about 10 years = 1200 dollars

I'd argue about half that amount in hard-copy form during my younger years (I'm mid-30s right now, been gaming since age 6) at about 40 dollar average cost = about 12,000 dollars

Got my first gaming rig in 1999, cost 1500. I go piece by piece over the years but I'd argue I do a total rebuild every four years at about 1500 dollars per rebuild, so (2018-1999 / 4) x 1500 = 7125 on hardware over almost 20 years.

So 15,500 + 12,000 + 7124 = just under 37,000 dollars

Not ashamed for a second. Two and half decades of gaming memories across thousands of games, well spent.

I quit cold turkey 12yrs ago and never looked back :)

On the topic of gaming expenses, well i'd say I've spent over $100,000 easily.

No way to know, and I probably wouldn't want to know lol.

Do tvs count?

If you bought them primarily for your gaming wants/needs, yeah I'd think so. There have been plenty of times when I've bought a display specifically for something gaming related.

Id say near $50,000 dollars and im 35.

I don't even want to know...

Purchased games, arcades, PC hardware, consoles, peripherals, accessories, subscriptions, TVs, monitors, audio equipment, collectibles, etc... Many tens of thousands.

But aren't you the guy who buys used games?

I haven't bought a used game in years.

What I can recall.....

Atari 2600, Commodore C128, Tandy 1000SX, Commodore Amiga A1000, Amiga A500, Amiga A2400HD, Amiga A1200, Mac IIcx, Leading Edge 386sx-25, AMD 386DX-40 (my first DIY, 1992), 80486DX2-66, Pentium P-150, P-166, P-200, P200MMX, Pentium 2 P2-266, Celeron 400, Pionex Pentium 3 P3-700, Pentium 3 P3-733, iBook G3 (my first laptop), HP Pavilion ze-5270 (first Windows laptop, I still have it too), 3 x AMD Athlon XP 1700+, AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+, Phenom II X3 720BE, FX-8350 (current PC), ASUS RoG G46VW. Tons of video cards. A number of consoles too.

My first DIY (1992) circa 1993. VHS, cassettes, 5.25" and 3.5" floppies, boom box. Packard Hell 14" SVGA monitor. Ha Ha! :)

I've probably spent over $20k just on PC hardware but no clue really. That would take a long time to try to figure up and remember.

Going down memory lane circa 2002......

2003:

If I saved my money instead of buying Video games, I would have enough money for College, a Car, and likely a House.

This Hobby is expensive and destroying my life. I love it

Ill tell you this with all seriousness.

I DONT wanna know ! Probably ill cry out loud !

Average per year including games, hardware upgrades, displays, I’d say about $1500 CAD. Been buying stuff with my own money since 16, so $33,000 I guess?

I upgrade frequently, at least on the gpu side, but I always manage to sell the old card for a good price.

It's in the tens of thousands. Meh. I want to spend my life consuming art/culture: books, music, film, tv and game. This is what i do and i die happy ;)

Not something I want to know...cause then I'll realise how much $$$$$ I could have saved if I don't game. :P

I don't really want to know.

I'm guessing around 25k... I hope.