The Xbox One and the PS4 are the main contributors

Nov 19, 2014 08:40 GMT  ·  By

Anecdotally, we all know that the video game space is performing well, with franchises posting better than expected pre-orders and sales year over year, and now the Entertainment Software Association is confirming the situation by revealing that the industry has managed to grow at four times the pace of the economy of the United States.

The organization states that from 2009 to 2012, a period for which the full data is available, the rate of compound annual growth was 9 percent.

The ESA adds, “The study, Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2014 Report, also found that the annual job growth for the video game industry increased more than 13 times the rate of the U.S. labor market (9 percent vs. 0.72 percent, respectively) during the same period. It shows that approximately 146,000 individuals are directly and indirectly employed by the entertainment software industry.”

The evaluation explains that 6.2 billion dollars (4.45 billion Euro) have been added to the American economy by video games in 2012, which is a solid amount given that there are still many potential customers who are not as willing to pick up a video game as they are to buy a movie.

Michael D. Gallagher, the president and chief executive officer of the Entertainment Software Association, states, “Our industry is one of the nation’s fastest growing economic sectors and represents tens-of-thousands of high-paying, well-educated professionals, artists and creators.”

Unsurprisingly, California employs the most video game industry personnel, while Texas is in second place in this regard.

Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 boosted the industry

Much of the positive evolution is linked to the Xbox One from Microsoft and the PlayStation 4 from Sony, the new devices that were launched in 2013 and have so far managed to perform better during their lifetimes than the previous generation.

The numbers of the coming Christmas shopping period are also expected to be impressive.

The PlayStation 4 has gone past the 13.5 million units sold all over the world mark recently and the Xbox One has managed to ship 2.4 million devices to stores during the quarter that ended on September 30.

The biggest problem at the moment is that gamers continue to buy the hardware in greater than expected numbers, but they are getting a smaller number of actual video games, which might become an issue in the long term.

A new set of sales numbers from the NPD Group will be offered before the end of the week.

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