A report released Tuesday from market research company NPD Group has found that digital spending on video games by kids has increased by 17 percent over the last two years.
The Kids and Entertainment Content report noted that the overall retail/digital spending split for kids -- classed as children between the ages of 2 and 14 -- is currently 79/21, with digital spending up compared to last year's 85/15 split.
The majority of kids' entertainment spending is on music and movie content, followed by video games, television shows, books and apps.
However, digital video game content has seen the fastest growth in kids' spending, up 17 percent in the last two years, compared to 14 percent for music and 13 percent for movies.
According to the report, in general kids start downloading digital content from an early age, with around 50 percent of kids having downloaded some form of digital content by the age of 7.
Anita Frazier, industry analyst for The NPD Group, noted, "Kids are not skittish to use technology that is available to them, and the convenience and instant gratification afforded by downloading content is alluring to them."
"The ease and short downloading times associated with music downloads means that this is often the gateway activity to downloading for kids, but the large increase in digital games acquisition over the last two years points to how this is becoming a more mainstream way of acquisition across all types of entertainment content."
