Australians Are Spending A Lot Of Money On Digital Video Games

So here’s something we were all aware of: digital sales of video games is a massive growth market. Retail sales? Not so much.

Here’s something new: in 2015, for the very first time, Australians spent more money on digital games than they did at traditional retail. We all knew this day would come.

The raw figures: in 2015 Australians spent $2.832 billion on video games. Digital sales accounted for $1.589 billion of that figure, while traditional retail made up the rest — $1.243 billion.

But here’s the thing: video game retail is still actually growing. It’s up 2% this year compared to 2014. That’s all well and good, but digital growth completely dwarves that figure. Digital is up a massive 27%.

Interestingly, the Interactive Games Association of Australia, who commissioned the study, attribute the increase in digital sales (in part) to consoles.

“Digital sales continue to surge in Australia as consumers become increasingly comfortable purchasing downloaded versions and additional content of their favourite games,” explained Ron Curry, CEO of the IGEA. “The current generation of consoles have been adopted rapidly by Australians, highlighting that gaming culture has become well and truly mainstream in the intervening years. This has had a flow on effect to the increased sale of both packaged games and digital content.”

Either way, people are spending a lot of money on video games.


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