Study: 5 Percent Of U.S. Consumer Entertainment Spending Goes To Video Games

U.S. consumers who spend a minimum of one dollar per month on game content also are more active in entertainment like sports, movie-going and live events -- and less active in other forms like print media. Nielsen's basis for studying entertainment spending is a concept it calls "share of wallet", or the percentage of monthly spending for all entertainment options by a household. According to this concept, consumers spend 5 percent of their entertainment dollars on video games, finds Nielsen's new study -- among those it defines as "active buyers," the figure is over 9 percent. 24 percent of U.S. households spend a minimum of one dollar a month on video games, says the firm. Those consumers also spend more than average on other forms of tech entertainment, like DVD and Blu-ray videos, music and online entertainment. According to Nielsen, those video game spenders also are more active than average in movie-going, sports activities and live events -- at the expense of traditional entertainment forms like basic cable and print media, where gamers are less active than the average. In fact, Nielsen's results find that the video game category, with its 24 percent buyer base, gets more attention than print media (4.2 percent), premium TV packages (4.1 percent), DVD/Blu-ray purchases and rentals (3.5%) and music in all its forms (2.8 percent).