The figures come from the NPD Group, showing a a 9 percent fall in games spending in the United States in 2012. The drop was driven largely by a drop in total physical software sales (which included all new, used and rental spending), accounting for $8.8 billion during the year, compared to $11.25 billion in 2011 (down 21 percent).
It wasn't all bad news however, as digital spending jumped 16 percent to $5.92 billion, up from $5.09 billion in 2011.
"When including all other forms of content spending outside of new physical games, the 2012 U.S. games market was more than twice as large as the total spending on new physical games alone," NPD analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement.
"There were divergent trends when looking at content spending in 2012 as a whole, with a decrease of 21 percent in spending on physical content while digital content spending grew 16 percent; both formats combined for a total decline of 9 percent for the year."
More: NPD
Written by: James Delahunty @ 6 Feb 2013 6:33
