Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, video game spending went up by around a quarter (in some cases, more) during 2020.

Gaming Saw a Surge in Popularity During 2020

A tweet from US market analyst, NPD Group's Mat Piscatella, has revealed some startling figures from 2020s video game spending reports.

In the US alone, gamers spent just under $60 billion in 2020. This is a massive increase of 27%, which equates to roughly $15 billion, based on 2019's $45 billion.

slaes figures charts showing US video game spending in 2020

December was a record-breaking month to top off a busy year for the gaming industry and its customers. It saw an increase of $1.5 billion in spending, up to $7.7 billion from $6.2 billion in December 2019.

We already knew that Nintendo was doing well with the Switch in 2020, and Microsoft was pretty pleased with its Series X/S launch figures. So, throw the successful PS5 launch into the mixer and you've got a recipe for serious profit.

How Do We Break Gaming Spending Figures Down?

In this particular report, NPD looks at three separate sectors of the video game industry:

  • Content, which is inclusive of both physical and digital titles, DLC packs, and subscriptions, across all platforms.
  • Hardware, so the consoles themselves, gaming PCs, and gaming laptops.
  • Accessories, which includes controllers and other peripheral gaming devices.

As you can see, in terms of annual sales figures, content saw an increase of just under 21% compared to 2019. This represents a rise of $10.2 billion in consumer spending on software and games.

Hardware leaps from $3.9 billion in 2019, up to $5.3 billion in 2020. This is a difference of $1.4 billion, but should remain unsurprising seeing as we had two major consoles launch at the end of 2020.

Accessories enjoyed an increase of $0.4 billion. 2019 saw accessory sales topping $2.2 billion. In 2020, that figure surged to $2.6 billion.

What Do These Figures Tell Us About the Future of Gaming?

mini-pc-gaming

As the COVID virus and its new mutations tear through the global population, it comes as no surprise that activities you can do alone at home would spike in popularity.

This is sure to happen; lockdown is boring everyone to tears, so people are looking for ways to amuse themselves. So, consumers are likely to turn to video games as a source of stay-at-home entertainment.

The global situation hasn't improved as we enter 2021, so we imagine that these trends will continue as governments struggle to control the effects of a global pandemic. Are consumers going to spend even more on video games in 2021? It is a possibility.

The Gaming Industry Is on a Roll

Someone playing PC games

The pandemic has proven to be very lucrative for certain sectors and video games is clearly one of those. You only have to look at the figures above to see proof of that.

It is encouraging that, where some industries have really felt the brunt of COVID's knock-on effects, gaming has continued to go from strength to strength.

Gaming has long been a popular pastime, but a change in our social lives has seen many more people turning to the hobby as, aside from the entertainment value of video games, it is a great way to enjoy time with friends from a remote setting.