Video Gamers Consume New Media

Reprinted from KenRadio

U.S. consumers face a dizzying array of choices in how to spend their media and entertainment dollar. At the same time, the current economic climate has put even more pressure on how households make decisions. A baseline for thinking about entertainment spending is the notion of “share of wallet,” defined here as the percentage of monthly spending for all entertainment options by a household. At a macro level, the video game category represents 5% of total U.S. households’ entertainment spending. Among households that are active buyers in the video game category, this figure is nearly double, with over 9% of total entertainment spend attributed to game-related content, according to a study Nielsen Games.

Before jumping further into the analysis, there is one important point to keep in mind. Put simply, shares do not equal dollars. Individual households spend different amounts in total on entertainment, which may deflate or inflate shares for a given category. In addition, these results are a reflection of consumer claims that are useful directionally in understanding how consumers perceive their allocations of money.
Video game category buyers (those spending at least $1 per month on game-related content) comprise 24% of U.S. households, and their share of wallet profiles paint a picture of valuable, tech-savvy entertainment consumers. Besides video games, they over-index substantially on DVD/Blu-ray, music, online entertainment, and VOD share of spending. They are also higher in share for movie-going, sports activities, and live events. These higher shares come at the expense of more established media options like basic cable and print media, where video game category buyers under-index notably.
Given the 24% buyer base, the video game category is notable for what other forms of entertainment it surpasses in share of spending for the average US home: all print media (4.2%), premium TV packages (4.1%), DVD/Blu-ray purchases and rentals (3.5%) and music in all its forms (2.8%).