If you’ve been watching the downward trend of consumer spending on the games industry with growing fear over the last few months, take heart: People were clearly just saving up for Black Friday, the most important holiday of the year (for games companies).
According to SuperData’s latest report, “consumers flocked to online retailers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday to take advantage of deep discounts offered by digital storefronts like PlayStation Store and Steam during the busiest shopping days of the holiday season” – resulting in a 9% rise in digital spending compared to last year’s Thanksgiving weekend. You folks also bought a ton of junk you didn’t need from cash shops too, contributing to “healthy” revenue gains for said companies.
“In addition to a seasonal boost in premium console and premium PC revenue, in-game spending in free-to-play games climbed to $3.3B worldwide, up 13% compared to last year’s sales event while premium PC generated $300M, an increase of 13% for the segment. […] In-game spending, which largely consists of gamers buying digital collectibles like character skins, loot boxes and other virtual gear, also posted healthy year-over-year gains during the holiday sales events. Runaway hits like Call of Duty Mobile made a significant impact in the mobile shooter genre, boosting the segment’s revenue in Europe and North America to $108M, up 52% compared to the same time period a year ago.”
SuperData points out that digital spending (compared to physical spending) is only continuing to rise, but we think the most important thing here is that we now understand the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
