Gamers Spend More On Non-Retail Game Content Than Physical Games

A new report from The NPD Group shows that gamers are spending a lot of money outside of just straightforward new boxed games you buy from the standard video game retailer. According to NPD, gamers spend $1.44 billion on physical games, and spend an additional $1.74 billion on extra content. The NPD's definition of extra game content is pretty broad, though. It includes things that we would expect like subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, and downloadable content, but it also includes used games, game rentals, social network games, and mobile games.

In any case, $1.74 billion dollars is a lot of money for us to be spending on things tangentially related to the games we're already buying.