Retail and Digital Software sales over $33 billion in 2010 - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 18 March 2011 / 7,527 Views
Retail and digital video game software sales over $33 billion in 2010
March 18, 2010 - VGChartz Ltd, a business intelligence and research firm for retail video game purchases, and Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE), a research firm tracking digitally distributed content, have teamed up to total the number of games purchased as discs, cartridges, and digital downloads during 2010. Retail and digital figures for tracked markets, seen below, came to over $33 billion in 2010, on over 3.2 billion game purchases. Overall, digital download revenues in 2010 totalled $2.5 billion representing 7.6% of the market total – a figure expected to increase significantly over the next few years. In terms of unit sales, digital platforms (in particular Apple) are already dominating with only just over 20% of unit sales on Nintendo's Wii & DS, Sony's Playstation 3 (PS3), Playstation Portable (PSP) & Playstation 2 (PS2), and Microsoft's Xbox 360 (X360). Valve's Steam service took almost $1 billion in revenue in 2010 and is quickly approaching the size of some declining retail markets. With the remaining PC digital markets estimated at around $250 million in 2010, Steam dominates with nearly 80% of the overall PC digital market.
| World Software in 2010 | Revenue (USD, Millions) | Units (Millions) |
| Playstation 3 (Retail) | $7,293 | 147 |
| Xbox 360 (Retail) | $7,242 | 150 |
| Wii (Retail) | $6,830 | 186 |
| PC (Retail) | $5,000 | n/a |
| Nintendo DS (Retail) | $2,562 | 129 |
| Playstation Portable (Retail) | $1,016 | 45 |
| Steam (PC DD) | $910 | 85 |
| Playstation 2 (Retail) | $756 | 19 |
| iOS Devices (DD) | $749 | 1905 |
| Downloadable Content X360 / PS3 | $300 | n/a |
| Non-Steam Digital Download PC | $250 | n/a |
| Xbox Live Arcade (DD) | $135 | 17 |
| Playstation Network (DD) | $90 |
10
|
| WiiWare & Virtual Console (DD) | $86 | 12 |
| Android (DD) | $16 | 465 |
| Blackberry (DD) | $8 | 54 |
| Windows Mobile (DD) | $7 | 13 |
Based on the combined FADE and VGChartz data, Wii software revenue was 98.7% retail and 1.3% digital. That compares to 97.1% for PS3 when DLC and PSN are combined for PS3, and about 96.3% for X360. The PSP and DSi digital markets represent a similar proportion of total revenue as their home console counterparts. Digital markets in 2010 were completely dominated by Apple on a unit basis for games, and Steam on a revenue basis according to FADE research. Nonetheless, VGChartz and FADE expect digital markets to continue to grow on dedicated game machines in 2011 and the pure digital markets, iOS, Android, Steam will continue to expand.
About VGchartz, Ltd
Founded in 2005 by Brett Walton, VGChartz (Video Game Charts) is a business intelligence and research firm and publisher of the VGChartz Network of gaming websites. As an industry research firm, VGChartz publishes over 7,000 unique estimates per week relating to worldwide game hardware and software sales and hosts an ever-expanding game database with over 40,000 titles listed and 1.5 million unique data points. The VGChartz Network is made up of the VGChartz, gamrFeed, gamrReview, gamrTV and gamrConnect brands and provide consumers with a range of content from news and features to reviews to social networking and community features.
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@Kai Master Yes it was :D and i think the reason why PS3 games generate more revenue is because is stronger then microsoft in many markets where games are more expensive like Germany and Australia for example where games can be almost double the prices of north american release.
VGC : do you think you could analyse 2007-2009 years also or are you lacking of data ?
@Pr1mus : "PC gaming is obviously dead." Was it ironic ? I'm amazed by PS3's : less game but more $$$, I didn't know PS3 games were a bit more expensive overall... More "budget/platinum" games on xbox 360 ?
PC retails is more then 2/3 of either microsoft or sony retail and Steam is more then half microsoft or sony in units.PC gaming is obviously dead.
Im a little shocked at PS3 being on top, i was sure that the Wii would have taken it
sweet
Good stuff but the digital numbers seem a bit low. Didn't Activision claim they made close to 100million$ just on MW2 DLC in2010 ? that would be like a 33% marketshare for DD on consoles for 1 game...
