Port Washington, N.Y. — Consumer spending on video game hardware grew 47 percent to $983 million in the first quarter of 2014, but dropped 1 percent to $4.6 billion for overall video game spending, according to The NPD Group.
The NPD Group’s “Games Market Dynamics: U.S., Q1 2014” report attributed the “dramatic increase in hardware sales” availability of new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles sparking strong year-over-year trends that “are likely to continue through most of 2014,” according to Liam Callahan, industry analyst.
The study said content spending was down 8 percent due to a decline in new physical disc format spending of 27 percent or $372 million.
In contrast to the physical declines, digital format spending collectively increased by 4 percent, driven by full game downloads and downloadable content for consoles and portables, NPD said.
“For the first quarter of 2014, content spending increased for used games, digital full games, downloadable content and mobile with a modest increase in subscription revenue,” Callahan said. “This is another example of the interplay of physical media as well as digital downloads as consumers transition further into this console generation.”
Gaming accessories sales fell 11 percent during the first quarter to $446 million, year over year, with gamepads and interactive gaming toys being the two bright spots for the category.