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Gamasutra is reporting on a study that has found that American gamers have spent 3.8 billion dollars on MMOs in 2009. Wow!
Image Credit: Gamasutra The charts provided in the article break down the spending figures from six different countries, including: the US, Germany, Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The highest spending nation behind the US is Britain at 270 million, which definitely puts things into perspective! The figures were further broken down into categories of spending. So where did your 3.8 billion go? 47% went to monthly subscriptions, 15% to annual subscriptions, 19% to virtual currency, 8% on direct microtransactions, and 11% on the boxed game or client downloads. Some other interesting revelations: The Brits spend the most (of their total) on direct microtransactions at 19%, Belgians spent the most on annual subscriptions (20%), and the French really love their virtual currency (31%). Of course, we still spent more total on all of the above. But it is definitely illuminating information with regards to the tendencies of gamers in different countries. View the original article here. [Thanks EricDanie for the tip!] Michael "MikeB" Bitton |
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So much for a recession.. Perhaps the politicians should move aside and let gamers rule the world? |
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Ofcourse the American gamers spend more money on mmo's cause there are more american gamers than their are people in belgium. ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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Originally posted by Selenica
I cast H-Bombga V on Bin Laden...wewt problem solved :)
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So, mmo´s are GREATLY profitable with the current crap, imagine when they start making top quality ones =x Awaiting 2010-2011 - GW 2 - Tera - C9 - D3 - R:POT :) |
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Originally posted by Selenica
What recession? If Blizzard should go bankrupt the government will bail them out. |
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Originally posted by Gravarg
I cast H-Bombga V on Bin Laden...wewt problem solved :)
H-Bombga V Missed! |
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Darth_Osor
 Advanced Member
Joined: 2/17/09
Just because you are unique does not mean you are special |
No offense to our Euro friends, but next time you wonder why NA is catered to by MMO devs, take a look at those numbers. |
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Virtual Currency 19% of 3.8 billion = 722 million dollars
Is that all 3rd party gold sales?
I think this is the first time I've seen that quantified.
Ken
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it's also interesting how the countries differ slightly.
For memory Brittan uses more micro transactions than the US. MMO wish list: -Changeable worlds |
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Originally posted by Darth_Osor
If they can provide us with a total for all Europe then we can compare. :) |
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I don't believe it. Any survey can say what is wanted just by asking the right question. 
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Originally posted by Spiritraiser
If they can provide us with a total for all Europe then we can compare. :)
Yes or atleast western Europe + Scandinavian countries. Europe has twice the population of the US. |
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Interesting that some people think Europe is 5 countries, I could have sworn that there were 50. Also European servers are frequented by Russians and Middle Eastern countries.
I imagine the virtual currency is microtransactions from (moslty) the F2P games. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. |
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Originally posted by viddster Yeah, I also believe 'virtual currency' means microtransactions, after all you purchase currency to be used into the cash shop, an indirect form of microtransactions, which makes me wonder what "direct microtransactions" would be as every F2P MMO out there uses a virtual currency for their cash shops. Anyway, it would be very interesting to see the next study made on a lot more countries including Asian ones, so we can learn more of the MMO gamer population habits from our countries. I thought virtual currencies would represent a lot more than just 25% of the industry in the US, but I guess I'm spoiled by Aihoshi's sugar coating or the F2P MMOs, they are still a long way from becoming the norm, if they ever do. I'll be a lot more under-impressed if these actually include the ToS-breaking gold-seller and powerleveling revenue. To those mentioning these don't really represent a comparison in active players between these games, I have to say that in a MMO of similar budget and quality, it's the revenue that counts to keep that game alive and in a good future (aka no lay-offs and perhaps even a future growth in the dev team, see CCP history if you need a good example). And to marketing teams of MMOs - over-hyping your unfinished products that won't be able to sustain that player base to achieve inflated box sales is shooting your own foot - what matters are the subscriptions (P2P-wise). |
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Originally posted by EricDanie Yeah, I also believe 'virtual currency' means microtransactions, after all you purchase currency to be used into the cash shop, an indirect form of microtransactions, which makes me wonder what "direct microtransactions" would be as every F2P MMO out there uses a virtual currency for their cash shops. Anyway, it would be very interesting to see the next study made on a lot more countries including Asian ones, so we can learn more of the MMO gamer population habits from our countries. I thought virtual currencies would represent a lot more than just 25% of the industry in the US, but I guess I'm spoiled by Aihoshi's sugar coating or the F2P MMOs, they are still a long way from becoming the norm, if they ever do. I'll be a lot more under-impressed if these actually include the ToS-breaking gold-seller and powerleveling revenue. To those mentioning these don't really represent a comparison in active players between these games, I have to say that in a MMO of similar budget and quality, it's the revenue that counts to keep that game alive and in a good future (aka no lay-offs and perhaps even a future growth in the dev team, see CCP history if you need a good example). And to marketing teams of MMOs - over-hyping your unfinished products that won't be able to sustain that player base to achieve inflated box sales is shooting your own foot - what matters are the subscriptions (P2P-wise).
well in WoW you buy a faction or race change directly, no "wow points" and the same with City of Heroes there are no "hero points" |
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Rofl and all these folks in other countries take about how bad us Americans are and how we should not have a sayin gaming circles. Rofl. the chart says it all.
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stevekr21
 Apprentice Member
Joined: 9/07/08
Dont think to hard...the universe might collapse upon it self...oh wait nvm |
LOL 
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Wow! Totally puts things into perspective. Too bad they can't put out asian numbers along side those. Makes sense, though, the way that graph plays out. |
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You all got ripped off, canada aint even on the list so we got all our play for free i guess :) |
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I too would like to see more of the world's numbers including Australia since my wife is from there. :) As for Europe vs. USA I agree that there is a larger population in Europe than in the USA then again as mentioned there are about 50 different countries you have to deal with in Europe, not so with the USA. Plus how many different languages are in Europe? There are far more to numbers than just the numbers. :D I love Statistics!
Current Game: Asssasins Creed 2(PS3, Gamer Tag: Happy_Hubby) |
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Just under 240 million in those 5 countries, but there is 830 million people in Europe, I see a discrepancy somewhere. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. |
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AmazingAvery
 Age of Conan Advocate
Joined: 1/16/07
Only a fool hates that which he knows nothing about |
"The report points out that Blizzard's World of Warcraft has the most number of players in the U.S. out of all the MMOs it tracked, just in front of NeoPets and Club Penguin. Other MMOs in the top five include Disney ToonTown and RuneScape." "This report contains comparative data om MMO players across six surveyed countries. It comprises approximately 60 pages and 70 graphs. The product also includes a full table set comparing MMO players in all six countries across all questions of the survey allowing unlimited cross-analysis and detail. If required we will assist in interpreting the data making sure you get the most out of it for your sales, marketing, product development and strategy. Price of the report and unique dataset is 4,950 euro. Please see the link on this page for the full contents of the report." Woah Probaby based on a poll of 2k ppl per country. If you want an North American AoC trial key just PM me your email address. |
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And then we wounder why game developers make crap, cause we buy it :(
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The data here is kinda fishy.
They state that there are 46 Million MMO players in the U.S.
21 Million who pay to play MMOs.
2.5 Million U.S. Wow subscribers.
They'd have us believe that there are 18.5 million MMO players in the U.S. paying to play games other than WoW.
That would support 100 MMOs with 180K paying customers each sharing in the remaining $2.0-2.5 Billion in revenue.
This flies in the face of the desperate state of the MMO industry today, where there are nowhere near 25 clearly successful MMOs, let alone 100. I think this whole article is suspect based on that.
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