Video games are big business, and are getting bigger every year. In 2014, $2.46 billion worth of games were sold in Australia. That's an increase of 20 per cent over the previous year, according to research from the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (IGEA).
The biggest shift is a 40 per cent increase in digital sales since 2013 and although retail sales went up seven per cent as well, digital now fractionally outperforms traditional store sales.
A 47 per cent increase in the sale of consoles (attributable to strong PS4, Xbox One and Wii U sales) was the biggest factor in the growth of retail sales, with all consoles achieving the highest level of first year sales for new iterations.
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Downloaded mobile game sales rose 56 per cent, explaining a large portion of the digital sales growth in Australia.
The revenue for game apps surpassed the $700 million mark, meaning games represent the majority of Australian app purchases. The largest portion of this game app revenue came from in-app purchases.
Minecraft doesn't look like slowing down either, managing to increase annual sales by 114 per cent.
With a plethora of AAA titles scheduled to launch this year, you can expect that the 2015 results will be just as big.
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