Last Updated on December 26, 2019 by Danielle
The US video game industry generated $37 billion in 2017, an 18 percent increase year over year.
According to a press release from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the US video game industry generated revenues of $37 billion in 2017.
Let’s take a deeper look at how this actually breaks down. Hardware and peripheral sales generated $6.9 billion. In 2016, sales were $5.8 billion, so this represents an increase of $1.1 billion year over year. Software sales brought in $29.1 billion in 2017, whereas in the prior year it was $24.6 billion. This represents a $4.5 billion increase year over year. Both sub categories of Hardware and Peripherals and Software sales experienced growth of almost 19 percent and 18 percent, respectively.
Overall, the video game industry experienced 18 percent growth in revenue year over year. Nintendo Switch, the fastest selling console in history, and the PlayStation 4 helped drive much of these gains along with Xbox One X, the world’s most powerful console, and Xbox One S sales.
Undoubtedly, it was a stellar year in gaming with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, Horizon Zero Dawn, Cuphead, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, Sonic Mania, Resident Evil 7, and so much more. You can review the best videogames of 2017 in our featured article, Best Video Games of 2017 Awards. In fact, as far as good games are concerned, 2017 was one of the best years since 2007.
In 2007, we had massive blockbusters like Super Mario Galaxy, Halo 3, God of War 2, Call of Duty 4, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted, The Witcher, Bioshock, Portal, Mass Effect, and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.
However, it should be noted that this data is not inclusive of digital sales for the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, and PC digital sales. So, in other words, the total revenue should be even higher than reported if this fact was taken into consideration.
All in all, 2017 was an incredible turnaround year for Nintendo, which launched the Nintendo Switch and eventually sold 10 million units worldwide in under a year. Now Nintendo has announced plans to sell 20 million Switch units by March 2019.
In 2018, gamers have a healthy slate of games to look forward to, including Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, Metroid Prime 4, God of War, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and much more. For the full list, check out our feature, The 20 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2018. It sure looks like it’s shaping up to be another year of growth in the industry. What do our readers think? Will the gaming industry experience another year of growth in 2018?
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