The NPD which tracks game sales in the US has revealed that US online gaming subscriptions top $1 billion a year. The findings were based on data gathered between October 2007 and March 2008 and the NPD also revealed that 11 million people in the US subscribe to online games each month.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier told GamesIndustry.biz the following.

“Now that NPD can estimate the value of the subscription market, it’s clear that there is a sizable chunk of revenue being generated by PC gaming beyond what is reflected in retail sales,”

“The variety of content available to play games on the PC clearly can draw a diverse audience.”

This shows that those people claiming that PC gaming is dying are short sighted individuals who cannot see the true potential of the PC as a gaming machine. $1 billion is not a figure to be scoffed at and is a clear example the the online gaming industry for the PC is a massive business.

GamesIndustry.biz also reports that NPD research showed that women over 35 are the main users of gaming websites while males under 35 are the largest MMO users.

World of Warcraft unsurprisingly is the top MMO in the US with RuneScape, Lord of the Rings Online, Final Fantasy XI and City of Heroes following in that order.

Tags: $1 billion!, MOGs, NPD, PC Gaming

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 11:14 am and is filed under General News, Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.