• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Digital Purchases Make Up Majority of US Video Game Sales, and Other ESA Stats

there are 24% of people who still buy hard copies. I find that... fascinating,

my kids like physical copies for theyre consoles, because they can then trade them back in when they are done/tired with the games, and get money towards another game. personally i like digital since you cant scratch a Key, but to each his own
 
Actually now that I think about it, even games I have on physical media I have rebought digitally just to save the hassle of the disc.
 
67% indicated that "Quality of the Graphics" was their #1 factor in picking a video game

Hmm where did you find this? When I download the PDF report to read this is what I see on page 12:
Factors Influencing Decisions to Purchase Video Games
22% Other
21% Price
16% Interesting Story/Premise

12% Quality of Graphics
11% Word of Mouth
9% Product is Familiar to Me from Past Experiences
9% Product is a Continuation of a Favorite Game Series
 
Last edited:
Hmm where did you find this? When I download the PDF report to read this is what I see on page 12:

Where did you find a pdf? My facts are from the source link, which is an interactive webpage. I'm guessing you found a different study.

EDIT: This is the closest to a pdf I can find, and page 14 supports my claims. However, the statistic goes way over 100%. Very strange, I can only assume they were allowed more than one choice. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

http://essentialfacts.theesa.com/mobile/
 
Last edited:
Oh, younger generation, so quick, so impatient.....

Nothing, but nothing can replace the joy of owning a hardware copy, since back in the day, ALL the games were sold in a nice box, with CD cases, hard print manual and artwork, maps, secrets, tips, etc. You actually HAD a felling that you own something. Now you just download a copy, install, play, pffff.... boooring. While this is good for multiplayer only games, I could never imagine having games like Diablo I, II, III, Starcraft, DeusEx, Warcraft II and III, C&C - all of them, GTAs, MaxPayne 1/2, MYST, Phantasmagoria, etc, etc with just an invisible digital copy.
You kids really don't know what you're missing.
View attachment 86843

Ahh, such great memories of WC2 and WC3... I miss those times when Blizzard gave a shit about this series.
 
Where did you find a pdf? My facts are from the source link, which is an interactive webpage. I'm guessing you found a different study.

EDIT: This is the closest to a pdf I can find, and page 14 supports my claims. However, the statistic goes way over 100%. Very strange, I can only assume they were allowed more than one choice. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

http://essentialfacts.theesa.com/mobile/

Oh, we're looking at different docs! I went to the desktop site and clicked on Download The Report from http://essentialfacts.theesa.com/ and got this:
http://essentialfacts.theesa.com/Essential-Facts-2016.pdf
 
What the heck, lol. Well that'll teach me to do my research from a mobile phone.

So who is right? This is weird as heck. Strange study. I'll make a note of this. Thank you again.

Haha no idea! ESA get your facts straight! It looks like they may have published the 2016 data on their desktop site, changed their data analysis for 2017 and published that on the mobile site. Way to go!

Thanks for following up too.
 
Back
Top