Gamers Collectively Spent $60 Billion on Games, Consoles, and Related Services Last Year – Report

A recent report by Ampere Analysis has revealed that the games industry raked in massive amounts of money in revenue last year. According to Piers Harding-Rolls (Ampere head of games research), the games industry saw a total revenue of $60 billion in worldwide sales of consoles, games, and related subscription services.

This is, unsurprisingly, higher than any year before it. Harding-Rolls believes that the short supply of both the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S held these numbers back by a significant margin. According to him, the increase in revenue can also be attributed to the wide adoption of subscription services like Xbox Game Pass.

“The increase in spending was driven by higher priced new consoles available on the market and increased adoption of subscription services, such as Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass,” he said.

Additionally, it’s also been estimated that player expenditure on in-game cosmetic items and microtransactions was less than what it was 2020- albeit by just 1 percent. Physical sales accounted for only 30% of the total software sales, while player expenditure on subscription services saw a 20% year-on-year rise.

It’s been estimated that the games industry will rake in around $61.1 billion this year, breaking records once again. That number could rise by a significant margin if Sony and Microsoft manage to alleviate console stock shortages this year.