FADE, strategic market research and consulting firm, estimates that console DLC has generated over $1 billion USD in revenues between PS3 and Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 has generated an estimated $750 million USD to Playstation 3 estimated at $640 million USD.
FADE notes in the report that the average time to launch DLC is between 180 and 190 days after release of the retail title. Despite this, many developers are seeing success launching content sooner than the average. FADE notes major successes in rollouts such as Call of Duty: Black Ops’ “First Strike” map pack, which released just 89 days after launch, and has seen an estimated 2.6 million downloads by mid May on the Xbox 360 – attaching to approximately 21% of all owners of the title. Multiplayer games aren’t the only ones seeing significant success in regards to sales, as multiple releases from Bethesda’s ‘Fallout 3’ and BioWare’s “Mass Effect 2” have yielded 3.9 million and 1.6 million downloads, respectively. “Average attach rates among all downloadable content are roughly 10%, but top-tier titles are attaching at 15% or even 25%,” said FADE Director of Research & Analysis Benjamin Schlichter.
Estimated Top 5 Life to Date Downloadable Content Items, by Estimated Revenue
- X360 – Call of Duty: Black Ops (First Strike Map Pack) – Treyarch / Activision – 2.6 Million Downloads
- X360 – Grand Theft Auto IV (The Lost & The Damned) – Rockstar Games / 2K Games – 1.5 Million Downloads
- X360 – Halo 3 (Mythic Map Pack) – Bungie / Microsoft – 2.6 Million Downloads
- X360 – Halo 3 (Legendary Map Pack) – Bungie / Microsoft – 2.5 Million Downloads
- PS3 – Grand Theft Auto IV (The Lost & The Damned) – Rockstar Games / 2K Games – 1.2 Million Downloads
This should come as good news for the video games industry and should provide a shot in the arm for various developers and publishers to produce m0re engaging video games.
Source: Press Release
