IDSA Report Sheds Light On Game Purchasing Habits

According to the poll, which was conducted this month for the IDSA by KRC Research, 41% of all Americans, and almost two-thirds (63%) of parents, said that they plan to purchase at least one game this year. In addition, a majority of Americans (56%) under the age of 45 plan to buy at least one computer or video game this year; while 37% of 45 to 54 year olds, and 26% of adults ages 55 to 64, also plan to buy at least one game this year. The IDSA report peered further into NPD's recent year-end industry report, revealing that sales of console games in the U.S. totaled $5.5 billion (80% of the market) while PC games accounted for $1.4 billion in sales. According to Doug Lowenstein of the IDSA, console sales accounted for 65% of all game sales just five years ago. When analyzing game ratings, games rated "E" for "Everyone" were the most prevelant (55.7%), followed by "Teen" (T) rated games (27.6%), and by "Mature" (M) rated games (13.2%). Of the top 20 best-selling console games, 80% were rated E or T, while 90% of the top 20 PC games were rated either E or T. Hot console games genres were action (25.1%), sports (19.5 %), and racing titles (16.6%), followed by edutainment (7.6%), role-playing games (7.4%), fighting games (6.4%), first person shooters (5.5%), and adventure games (5.1%). Hot PC game genres were strategy games (27.4%), children's games (15.9%) and FPS games (11.5%), followed by family entertainment titles (9.6%), role-playing games (8%), sports titles (6.3%), racing (4.4%), simulation (4.1%), and fighting games (0.1%).