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Report: US gaming sales surpass DVDs

  • By Polybren, GameSpot
  • Posted Jul 1, 2008 2:58 pm PT

It's not uncommon to hear people within the gaming industry point out that games are bigger than movies. While that statement is true, it's also slightly misleading. Games do bring in larger revenues than box office ticket sales in the US, but when one adds in the DVD market and other revenue films...

It's not uncommon to hear people within the gaming industry point out that games are bigger than movies. While that statement is true, it's also slightly misleading. Games do bring in larger revenues than box office ticket sales in the US, but when one adds in the DVD market and other revenue films generate after their initial theatrical run, gaming clearly trails the movie business.

That might be changing, as the Entertainment Merchants Association has released its annual report, and the trade group's recap of 2007 compiled cross-industry stats and offered a little perspective on the relative sizes of the gaming and film industries.

According to the NPD Group's year-end figures, the US retail gaming industry took in $18.85 billion during 2007 in hardware, software, and accessories. That's nearly twice the Motion Picture Association of America and Nielsen EDI's record-setting US box office take of $9.6 billion for the year. The gaming industry even surpassed DVD software sales in 2007, reported to be $16 billion by the Digital Entertainment Group and $15.9 billion by Adams Media Research.

Despite the impressive numbers, interactive entertainment still comes up short against the totality of the movie industry. The US box office, DVD sales, and DVD rentals markets combined for more than $33 billion in revenues last year. (No data for the gaming rental market was reported.) Furthermore, that figure doesn't include the billions spent on DVD players and other home video hardware and accessories.

113 Comments

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 8:08 pm GMT

    Test again!

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 8:08 pm GMT

    Test again!

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 8:07 pm GMT

    This is another test!

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 8:07 pm GMT

    This is another test!

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 8:06 pm GMT

    this is a test

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Sep 21, 2008 8:06 pm GMT

    this is a test

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Aug 13, 2008 1:42 am GMT

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  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Aug 13, 2008 1:42 am GMT

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  • PieCrusher

    Posted Jul 20, 2008 12:19 pm GMT

    Video games are becoming the new fad. It is no surprise that they sell better.

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Jul 6, 2008 10:57 pm GMT

    2

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Jul 6, 2008 10:31 pm GMT

    3

  • insanitycheck3 Site moderator

    Posted Jul 6, 2008 10:31 pm GMT

    moderate

  • j5r9s2

    Posted Jul 6, 2008 9:01 pm GMT

    I feel partly to blame for this, I would say sorry except for Im not, I think its due to the fact alot of the movies are pretty much repeats and has been done before

  • V-Nine

    Posted Jul 6, 2008 12:15 am GMT

    ....i dont think it a reasonable comparison, 1 game usually cost 8x more than 1 average movie ticket......

  • snakes3425

    Posted Jul 5, 2008 12:12 am GMT

    A lot of Video Games are on par with the best that Hollywood can put out.

  • Gifted_One

    Posted Jul 4, 2008 3:06 am GMT

    Now that's what I am talking about. Go Game Industry!!!

  • cooldude03

    Posted Jul 3, 2008 3:09 am GMT

    I Netflix that's why DVD sales are down. Great invention. And anyone who uses Gamefly brought down the Video Games sales, so guess maybe that evens itself out.

  • neerajkumar_4

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 11:31 pm GMT

    games FTW!!!

  • ad1x2

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 8:10 pm GMT

    It's funny how comments that are logical and mention stuff like lower DVD prices, lack of including DVD player costs, piracy, etc. get thumbs down while simple comments like "games rule, movies suck!" get the thumbs up.

  • ctg867

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 7:59 pm GMT

    The movie, music, and TV industries are all in serious trouble. While the video game industry continue to sky rocket. Now you see those three industries continuing to try and get a piece of the video game pie.

    The movie industry continue to pump out it's standard movie game release alongside popular movies, but you're continuing to see more and more offshoots of movie IPs that don't coincide with a movie. Whether it's what happened with Riddick a little while back, or them bothering to make a second Cars game, or the continued success of Star Wars based games. There's a ton of examples, and it's all just attempts to try and get more money from gamers because they need that money. The movie industry is struggling at the box office, with BD and DVD sales, and with newer methods of digital distribution. Which, incase you haven't noticed, all revolve around games now. BD is at the forefront of the PS3, and movie digital distribution is a big thing on 360.

    The music industry is facing even bigger problems. Where only a few CDs, which only retail for $20 a piece, can sell a million copies in a week these days, you have games like MGS4 and GTA IV selling nearly that much in one day, and more and more games continuing to sell up around those numbers. And these things cost $60 a piece. Now the music industry is jumping on Rock Band and Guitar Hero because it's hoping to try and find a way to make money. They've done side by sides before and some songs sell better on Rock Band then they do on iTunes. Even with just game soundtracks, look how much they jumped all over GTA IV. Hell, 50 Cent is going to have a SECOND video game. If that's not proof the industry is huge, I don't know what is.

    Even TV is trying to get a piece. With games based off of popular shows like 24 and CSI. Anything they can do to turn an extra buck from a striving industry. There are more examples, but you get the idea. Bottom line is it's great to be a gamer.

  • Taegre

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 7:37 pm GMT

    And anybody saying movies are pure crap today really needs to get out of 2004.

  • Proman84

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 6:22 pm GMT

    Just a small note: this headline is true in terms of overall $ money. In terms of units sold DVDs still lead.

  • godzillavskong

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 6:11 pm GMT

    Not too shocking. You can just about watch or download any movies now on a home pc and the gaming market just keeps growing and growing. If only Blu-rays would drop their price some.

  • AlphaHawkP

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 3:37 pm GMT

    Games are eons better than 99% of movies today. Not surprising.

  • shroom76

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 3:29 pm GMT

    thats prolly mroe the 60 dollar games vs 15 dollar movies....1/4 the game sales is more money

  • zintarr

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 3:25 pm GMT

    Considering that most movies for the past decade have been pure crap I find this to be no surprise.

  • KayHangman

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 3:03 pm GMT

    Despite the rise of the casual gaming market, I think the increasing number of "movies as games" is contributing to that shift. Look at a game like MGS4 with the massive sized cutscenes. Interaction combined with a good story is going to draw a big crowd. (Edit: I don't mean porting a movie into a game, but the idea that games are more like interactive movies; in case there's confusion).

    Besides, gaming is one of the best deals for the cost in terms of entertainment. I can put hundreds of hours into a single $50 game, where movies that match the same cost would only get me about 10 hours of viewing (or 20 with a rewatch) later. Value is important to people, too.

  • acerx7

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 2:33 pm GMT

    yeah, but if they keep raising the price of games I'm for one am going to cut back. Too many things are expensive nowadays we don't need games to follow in suit.

  • Solid_Azeus

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 1:21 pm GMT

    how many people watch movies more than twice these days?. just go see the movie in the theatre if good and feel like watching then rent it otherwise i'd rather be playing gears or mgs4 and yea i keep coming back for the online content until the next line of quality games come along which doesnt take time. Another thing u pay 30USd for a DVD to watch for almost 2hrs. Then u pay 60USD for a game to last you tons of hours i say i'm getting moneys worth and funs worth right there! Anybody agree?

  • bubnux

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 1:20 pm GMT

    Pip pip, good show.

  • lamprey263

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 1:19 pm GMT

    Well, I used to be one of those big film buffs that always went to go see movies all the time and of course I'd end up buying a bunch of DVDs of movies I saw in the theater and really liked, but that's back when movies were like around $6 and were nothing, and matinees were $4. Now movie tickets are like $10+ and popcorn and soda are another $10+, I can go out and buy a new copy of a PS2 hit for that much and play it for hours. What makes things worse is video rentals are like $4+. It doesn't help that almost all the movies that come out these days just suck. Online rental services are bad and usually require you queue up like 50 movies they send you at random and they're most likely never your top picks. This all leads to less people being exposed to the kind of movies they'd like, and probably results in less overall DVD sales. I'm also not surprised game sales are up. Video game rentals are like $7 dollars a piece, and it doesn't take long for games to get cheaper. I can understand how some people would refuse to rent a game only to go spend full price later to buy it if they like it, so instead they make a calculated risk to buy stuff based on previews and reviews that exist all over the internet and gaming publications.

  • Taegre

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 1:16 pm GMT

    I want video games to become more accepted, but no art form has ever been eliminated by another, so all you expecting the art of filmmaking to disappear better not hold your breath. Game developers have talent and passion, but there's nobody more guerilla than a man with a camera and a vision. And while the cinematography of Halo 3's cutscenes is the best of any game ever made, it still doesn't touch Timur Bekmanbetov's genius of Nochnoi Dozer or pretty much any shot of any Wachowski Brothers movie. That doesn't mean they're not as good, but there are too many things you can do in a movie that you can't express in games, and vice versa, to justify trying to say they're in competition.

  • Henninger

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 1:11 pm GMT

    If games weren't 60 bucks games would b #1 in total revenue & even still with the trend thats goin on games will 1 day take over.

  • niket527

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 11:48 am GMT

    most people seem to forget one simple fact, dvds cost a lot less than games. they also cost a lot more than movie tickets, so it's no big surprise when a game like halo makes more than a box office hit. most people are idiots like u guys

  • pencilpusher69

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 11:44 am GMT

    And if DVD's weren't being pirated at astronomical rates, this wouldn't even be an issue.

    I love games, but people need to keep perspective. It's like when people talk about the PC being dead for games, when their sales are high, and if you factor in the massive, 20:1 piracy that goes on, PC gaming is probably the biggest gaming platform out there.

  • cooldude03

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 11:42 am GMT

    This is very misleading considering the price of a video game compared to the price of a dvd even compared to the price of a blu-ray disc. Video games just plain cost more.

  • paullywog

    Posted Jul 2, 2008 11:36 am GMT

    yep well it's also part of the fact that movies are much easier to be (and therefore are) pirated more. but games >>>movies for the most part.

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