The High Cost Of Being A Gamer: $30,000

It's a good thing we all have so much money, because a new study by GameStrata has found that videogamers drop more than 30 grand on their hobby over their peak gaming years.

GameStrata, which provides statistical data for the videogame industry as well as online tools for leaderboards, player rankings and other information for gamers, said North American game enthusiasts will spend more than $30,500 dollars on videogames and gaming hardware during their "peak gaming years," which the survey pegged at 18-48.

The study also found strong and growing interest in online content, with the "vast majority of respondents" saying they prefer to do most of their gaming online with Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

"With forecasters estimating this year's sales will reach nearly $23 billion, it's clear that gaming is the fastest-growing sector in the entertainment industry," said GameStrata COO Barry Dorf. "The best part is that the trend doesn't show any signs of slowing. In spite of predictions of a sluggish economy, gamers continue to invest their time and money into electronic entertainment."

Increasing acceptance of microtransactions is also a "notable trend," with 85 percent of respondents saying they've made at least one purchase of a virtual item in the last month. Participation in social networks was found to increase the likelihood of the purchase of online goods, as gamers who see their online friends updating their systems and software are more likely to do the same for themselves. The report also noted that with 40 percent of gamers reporting online play of 6-10 hours per week, a "simple, easy to navigate online infrastructure" is as important to the success of a console as the hardware itself.

"The survey results show that social networks need only adapt to the persistent and competitive elements of any genre to penetrate its user base," Dorf said. "The viability of future gaming-centric social networks is very strong."

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Gosh, if I could have all the cash I've spent on video games up to this point in my life back...the games I'd buy...

$30,500 over 30 years? A bit over a grand a year? Pfft. That's small potatoes compared with golf, hockey, or skiing. Come to think of it, isn't that about the same as buying a latté every morning for the same period?

I'll dispute the "high cost" part of the title, but I do agree that in the aggregate there's a lot of money in the games industry and that number is heading upward.

-- Steve

I'd believe it - I spend probably over $2k a year on games, then figure in new consoles every 4-7 years, a new pc every 3-4 years ... and I've been in it since the late-70s. Yeah, I can see $30k pretty easily ... oh, God, I've squandered my child's first semester of college!!!

rbtroj:
I'd believe it - I spend probably over $2k a year on games, then figure in new consoles every 4-7 years, a new pc every 3-4 years ... and I've been in it since the late-70s. Yeah, I can see $30k pretty easily ... oh, God, I've squandered my child's first semester of college!!!

Piffle. Who says the kid's going to college? (Hey, maybe that'll be the next big "movement", WiiU! The only college education we plebians can afford!)

Thais:

rbtroj:
I'd believe it - I spend probably over $2k a year on games, then figure in new consoles every 4-7 years, a new pc every 3-4 years ... and I've been in it since the late-70s. Yeah, I can see $30k pretty easily ... oh, God, I've squandered my child's first semester of college!!!

Piffle. Who says the kid's going to college? (Hey, maybe that'll be the next big "movement", WiiU! The only college education we plebians can afford!)

Good point - with video-game junkie as a father, how could she ever hope to pass the eighth grade. Well, you know what they say about lost causes: "time to buy more games!"

Well, since the first time I picked up an NES controler about 13 years ago, I have yet to crack 1,000 spent on video games.

Churchman:
Well, since the first time I picked up an NES controler about 13 years ago, I have yet to crack 1,000 spent on video games.

Piracy? ;-)

<.< >.>

I plead the 5th

What do you mean it doesn't work in canada? shi...!

I do wonder about adjusting for inflation there.

Anyway. That aside, I'm assuming most gamers are spending their entertainment money there, the bucks they'd have spent on some other form of entertainment anyway. One might as well say, "If you could only have all the money you spent on restaurants going out with your friends back!"

$30k over 30 years? That's about 2 euro's a day average. My lunch is more expensive then my gaming then. This article serves as nothing but innacurate statistics for the "games are bad" morons to claim that we are ruining the economy.

Yeh, the results are a bit skewed. I mean, I've gotta have spent more than that... **counts** for me, it seems way off... I need to buy more games.

L.B. Jeffries:
Gosh, if I could have all the cash I've spent on video games up to this point in my life back...the games I'd buy...

XD That was my first thought.

Asehujiko:
$30k over 30 years? That's about 2 euro's a day average. My lunch is more expensive then my gaming then. This article serves as nothing but innacurate statistics for the "games are bad" morons to claim that we are ruining the economy.

Well I should hope so, surely eating is more important than gaming?

Anyway, there was me quickly adding up how much gaming costs me, I'm think "There's no way I spend over a grand a year." Then it occurs to me that the figure is in dollars, so I only have to beat £500 to win this game, guess what? With conversion on my side, I pass with flying colours. Don't really know wether or not that's a good thing.....

Echolocating:

Churchman:
Well, since the first time I picked up an NES controler about 13 years ago, I have yet to crack 1,000 spent on video games.

Piracy? ;-)

Pre-owned games? Not buying new games every week? Not subscribing to online gaming services (those stupid waste of time and money MMORPGs, XBOX live)?

I have been playing games for 7 years and I don't think i have spent much over £500, and that's including my xbox 360. (My first two consoles I didn't buy, but they weren't that expensive at the time - PS1, Xbox)

Anyway, that's nothing. Your average child is meant to cost a parent about £800 000. (not to buy, obviously). If you buy a new car it could be anything between £5000 to, well, the sky's the limit really, depends on the car.

Eagle Est1986:
Well I should hope so, surely eating is more important than gaming?

It is. What i was trying to demonstrate is that gaming is actualy less expensive then some of the things people take for granted.

Honestly? 30k is way to conservative a number. Considering the amount of games I've purchased (being less than half-way through the subject age bracket), I'd have figured the grand total would be in the 50k+ range.

Holy crap! That seems like a lot of money. Does the figure vary between PC and Console gamers?

I think the figure is an across-the-board estimate, rather than a breakdown of particular sub-demographics. And when you consider that it's 30 grand over 30 years, it's not really that much. Like Ashewhatsisface said, I know people who spend more than that on coffee.

$30,500 well spent in my opinion.

I probably spend around $100 -$250 a year so that's about $7,500 over 30 years

how the hell do you spend $30,500, compared to other hobbies like sports you cant play sports for 30 years straight.

Thats a large amount of money.
Does that count building computers?

Well, I suppose it's better than spending it on something useless like cigarettes.

since i began to work i buy one game every two weeks... and thats a year now... and i have 21... but i have been a gamer since i was a kid like 7. so 30K falls short and

L.B. Jeffries:
Gosh, if I could have all the cash I've spent on video games up to this point in my life back...the games I'd buy...

that will be cool

Golly, i spent over $1000 this year. 13 PS3 games including GH:WT bundle. In Australian Dollars

Yipes

Perhaps I'm one of the only gamers left that just borrows most games from friends :X

Edit: I also had a question: are only mods allowed to post new threads here?

I doubt that i have spent more than $3000 on games in my life.

$30,0000 over 30 years is nothing. I can make 800 a week working at a supermarket stacking shelves... Add up how much a coffee every morning costs, add up how much buying lunch costs rather than bringing your own, driving to work rather than catching public tansport, alcohol, smokes... Add those up over 30 years and they will make what we spend on gaming look like pennies. All this survey tells me is gaming is one of the cheapest hobbies you could ever have.

I dont care, it's oney well spent. I enjoy it. Although I doubt I've spent a grand this year, $750 at a stretch.

Thais:

rbtroj:
I'd believe it - I spend probably over $2k a year on games, then figure in new consoles every 4-7 years, a new pc every 3-4 years ... and I've been in it since the late-70s. Yeah, I can see $30k pretty easily ... oh, God, I've squandered my child's first semester of college!!!

Piffle. Who says the kid's going to college? (Hey, maybe that'll be the next big "movement", WiiU! The only college education we plebians can afford!)

I have to go to college, because according to my dad it's either that or I'll be "Toting an AR and running through the sand." WiiU sounds like a nice option. =)

Xojins:
Perhaps I'm one of the only gamers left that just borrows most games from friends :X

Edit: I also had a question: are only mods allowed to post new threads here?

No, anyone can, and welcome to the Escapist.
EDIT: Wait, you've been here a year and don't know that?

So, $30,000 over a 30-year span? $1,000 a year, on average. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Xojins:
Perhaps I'm one of the only gamers left that just borrows most games from friends :X

Edit: I also had a question: are only mods allowed to post new threads here?

My friends borrow games from me... It's a wonderful life...

AdjectiveAnimal:

Xojins:
Perhaps I'm one of the only gamers left that just borrows most games from friends :X

Edit: I also had a question: are only mods allowed to post new threads here?

No, anyone can, and welcome to the Escapist.
EDIT: Wait, you've been here a year and don't know that?

I've had an account for a year, but I didn't really start posting until relatively recently. I used to just watch the Zero Punctuation videos, but I like to see what people think about things.
:)

Let's see...assuming that $1,000/yr for 30 years expense count is right, that's $2.74 a day. Two dollars, seventy-four cents. Even a kid making minimum wage at McDonald's can earn that in half an hour, never mind someone working in a career field with education and experience (at the US median household income of ~$56,000 a year, or roughly $27 an hour, an educated worker working a 9-to-5 job has made his gaming money for the day by 9:06 in the morning.)

Even someone making half the abovementioned median income (someone who, say, is in his twenties in an entry-level career-field job) makes his daily gaming bread by 9:12 AM. Now then, who among us wouldn't love to go into work and mark the time every morning where we've supported our gaming habit? If anything I'd be motivated to work harder if it weren't so damn easy to keep a gaming habit that it only took 6-12 minutes for me to earn the money to get what I want.

Besides, non-gamers often spend more on Starbucks coffee if they're into their double-whip no-caf soy lattes (or whatever the fuck Yuppies order at coffee places---I'm more of the Dunkin Donuts on Causeway St. in Boston "gimme a lahge coffee, regulah" type) than gamers spend on consoles, games, and PC parts and upgrades, and all they get for it is crappy coffee and a short-lived caffeine buzz (or not, if they order decaf).