Online games subscriptions earn more than billion dollars annually

Research by the US NPD Group has shown that online game subscriptions in the US generate more than $1 billion in annual sales. This largely compensates for the declining sales in the store.

Between October 2007 and March 2008, the company collected data on the number of online players, their demographics, and the most popular games and websites. Every month 11 million people subscribe to online games. According to the NPD Group, the survey shows that declining retail sales do not reflect overall sales in the PC games market. Especially mmorpgs such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online prove immensely popular and provide considerable turnover. Are at the websites pogo.com and realarcade.com on the top of the list.

The research firm also found that gaming websites attract a substantially different audience than MMOs. The sites are mainly used by women over the age of 35, while the MMOs are mainly allowed to count men under the age of 35 as their audience. According to analyst Anita Frazier of the NGD Group, it is the wide variety of content that makes PC games for a very diverse player audience.