Global Gaming Sales to Surpass Music Sales This Year

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the video game industry’s global sales will surpass those of the music industry this year, and US sales are projected to top the music industry next year.

PwC’s global managing partner, entertainment and media practice, Marcel Fenez, said, “Video gaming is one of the most exciting stories in terms of pure growth numbers.” PwC projects that the US gaming industry will gain something along the lines of 6.7% for 2007-2011, up to $12.5 billion. Worldwide, game spending jumped 14.3% to $31.6 billion in 2006 and according to the preliminary data, should rise 18.5% to $37.5 billion this year.

Fenez expressed his opinion that the overall gaming audience continues to expand, becoming older and more female than in the past. He attributes this expansion to casual games and the fact that games continue to become more of an “important part of culture.”

This is no surprise to anyone who follows the industry. It’s growing exponentially, and there’s honestly no end in sight. Sure, we’ve got some bad publicity, between the school shootings that people try to blame on games and titles like Manhunt 2 bringing violent games to the forefront of the public eye, but overall, the industry is on the way up. This can only be good for the gamer. More gamers means more money in the industry, which means more games for us to choose from. Hopefully, that will also mean better games as well.