Print is dying to the tune of a 5.6 per cent drop in magazine sales in the United States for the first half of 2010, but one video game mag is still going strong.
What game publication is able to hang with the Good Housekeepings and Woman’s Days at the newsstands? Game Informer, that’s what. According to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, Game Informer is still circulating at more than 4.3 million copies a month.
No doubt, that’s a rate boosted by its foothold in owner GameStop’s stores, but whatever the basis of its success, its enough to shame the Ladies Home Journal.
The mag with the biggest circulation? AARP: The Magazine, the American Association for Retired Person’s official rag. It boasts an impressive 23.7 million issues. GI better hope AARP doesn’t start scaling up its video game coverage.
The 20 BIGGEST Magazines Of 2010 So Far [Huffington Post]
Michael Barnes
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 11:17 AMMaybe its also because the mag is quite large and full of info and only costs $4.95 compared to Hyper’s $9.95, Official Nintendo’s $9.95 (sometimes higher) and Official PS3 and Xbox 360′s at $16.95.
Riavan
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 11:57 AMYeah but GI is also about the same price as the ladies mags, which are always super cheap, so that’s a fair comparison that is made.
I’ve bought every episode of the Australian GI so far, always pick up a copy around the 20th of every month.
alinos
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 11:59 AMehh its because they get there exclusives
they consistently get more of the major ones earlier which gives them the advantage
and as said its cheap
Glen
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 12:39 PMWhen I see a mag for the same price as womens mags I wonder if it has the same kind of content… That is, articles that are basically written by companies marketing departments.
Ollie
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 1:15 PMI switched to GI after Hyper turned to crap. GI contains mature journalism and makes for an interesting read, and at half the price of Hyper it’s a no brainer.
Furthermore, GI CONTAINS PRACTICALLY NO SPELLING OR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS!!! Hyper is terrible for this…
James Mac
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 3:21 PMAnd the cover art is also fairly good.
Strand0410
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 5:40 PMI stopped buying magazines awhile back (except Empire) and agree there are so many benefits to online sites. Especially with a field like videogames where scoops, exclusives and breaking news happens all the time, how is a monthly subscription supposed to keep up?
On the other hand, I love reading Empire for its exclusive interviews, retrospective analysis etc. Gamestop may be pimping this magazine, but considering in the future all games will have digital distribution, how long will they possibly last.
Novangel
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 7:23 PMI love GameInformer, it’s just pure quality editorial over quantity. Such good pricing too.
Arcane Azmadi
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 12:58 PMI only just recently started buying Game Informer (got a bit disillusioned with Hyper) and I regret not doing so before. It’s a great mag.