Australian Video Game Spending Breaks $3 Billion Dollar Mark

Through. The. Roof. That’s where our Video Game spending is going

The Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA) has today released market data which points to a skyrocketing trend in Aussie video game consumption.

Last year, Aussies spent approximately $3.23 billion in 2017 on games and hardware. This number represents a whopping 9% increase since 2016. Such growth has been fuelled by a massive increase in console and hardware sales (36%), which seemingly shows that more Aussies are getting into the world of video games for the first time.

The figures were helped along by the return of Nintendo to the fray of big time console gaming with its ‘Switch’, a hybrid console which garnered huge popularity with the younger masses. The unexpected success of the Switch has certainly contributed to these astronomical numbers, but the heavy lifting in the console department is still taken care of by the usual suspects, Xbox and Playstation.

“Despite the huge amount of entertainment options available to Australians, the appetite for games shows no signs of waning, evidenced by growth across the entire industry,” said Ron Curry, CEO of IGEA. “In 2017, we saw gamers embrace new and updated consoles. At the same time, there was lots of love shown and nostalgia for old favourites – both hardware and games.”

Mobile gaming once again took a large chunk of the digital sales pie, generating a billion dollars worth of revenue over the course of the year, with non mobile digital downloads bringing in close to 890 million dollars.

And the growth doesn’t look like its slowing down any time soon, with Foad Fadaghi, Telsyte Managing Director, stating that “Telsyte expects the market to remain strong in 2018 with continued push to digital platforms and subscription models by leading publishers.”

A stellar effort from an industry that’s clearly on the rise.