US gamers spent $25.3 billion in 2009 - Report

Last July, the NPD Group estimated that the US gaming population was around 170 million people. Eight months later, the leading domestic industry-research firm reported that US non-PC hardware, software, and accessory sales totaled $19.66 billion for the year.

Today, another research company released its own report on 2009 game sales, with slightly different results. Using a survey of over 13,000 consumers aged 8 and up, Netherlands-based a Newzoo estimates that 183.5 million gamers spent $25.29 billion in the US last year. The study differs from NPD's report in that it includes PC, casual, and mobile gaming. NPD's population report surveyed 21,000 gamers, and its 2009 sales report comes from a survey of retailers, not consumers.

The Newzoo report, conducted in conjunction with market-research firm TNS, also broke down gaming revenue by category. Some 60 percent of all US dollars spent on gaming went to "consoles," a category that includes handheld platforms, such as the PSP and DS. About 16 percent of US game revenue was spent on retail and downloads of PC games, excluding casual games and social-network-based games. Those two latter categories were lumped together into a "game portal" category, which accounted for 11 percent of US game sales.

Newzoo's PC game figure also did not include microtransactions from, subscriptions to, downloads of, and retail sales of massively multiplayer online games, which made up 8 percent of all US game sales in 2009. The research firm included "virtual worlds" like Habbo.com in the MMOG category. Games for all mobile platforms, including the ubiquitous iPhone, accounted for just 4 percent of domestic gaming revenue.

Newzoo also offered gaming-population estimates and revenue breakdowns for the UK, Germany, and France. Those figures are viewable below.

2009 GAMING POPULATION & SALES (Estimated)
US: 183.5 million / $25.29 billion
UK: 31.3 million / £3.78 billion ($5.61 billion)
Germany: 35.5 million / €3.65 billion ($4.67 billion)
France: 25.4 million / €3.57 billion ($4.57 billion)
Netherlands: 9.3 million / €590 million ($754 million)
Belgium: 4.7 million / €570 million ($729 million)

2009 GAME SALES - US
Console (including handhelds): 60%
PC: 16%
Game portals: 11%
Massively multiplayer online: 8%
Mobile (incl. iPhone): 4%

2009 GAME SALES - UK
Console (including handhelds): 63%
PC: 20%
Game portals: 7%
Massively multiplayer online: 5%
Mobile (incl. iPhone): 5%

2009 GAME SALES - GERMANY
Console (including handhelds): 42%
PC: 36%
Game portals: 12%
Massively multiplayer online: 5%
Mobile (incl. iPhone): 5%

2009 GAME SALES - FRANCE
Console (including handhelds): 68%
PC: 19%
Game portals: 5%
Massively multiplayer online: 4%
Mobile (incl. iPhone): 3%

Source: Newzoo/TNS survey of 13,000 gamers 8 and over.