The “return to normal” (albeit amid COVID’s continued circulation), along with inflation and a difficult economic environment, are the likely culprits behind a continued decrease in consumer spending on video gaming in the US. As reports The NPD Group, video game spending declined by 13% year-over-year in Q2, to $12.35 billion, after falling by 8% in Q1.
Overall content spending was about $11 billion in Q2, representing a 13% year-over-year decrease. This perhaps should be expected: in a recent survey, consumers pointed to video-game and video-game subscription purchases as being among their first cutbacks should they be faced with cost-of-living increases.
While spending on non-mobile subscription content actually grew during the quarter, the rest of the categories dropped, with mobile content having the largest role to play in the decline. Sensor Tower data cited shows consumer spending in mobile games falling by 12% year-over-year.
Among the other video game spending areas analyzed, Hardware spend dipped by 1% year-over-year, while Accessories spend saw a more substantial decline of 11%.
For more, read The NPD Group’s release here.
