Home Gaming 32-year-old men are the new whales

32-year-old men are the new whales

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Whale

The data is out about digital console revenue, and the demographics may surprise you. Unlike the mobile market which is fueled by middle aged women buying vanity items for their farms and lollipops for Candy Crush, the digital console market averages a much higher revenue per paying user.

According to stats out of Super Data, digital console revenue got a boost of 26% in 2014, while the audience only increased by 9%. Despite all our rage about micro transactions, they are the most popular purchases among console spenders with weapons (55%), vanity items (36%) and vehicles (33%) at the top of the list of items purchased. Wait, where are the DLC?

The average digital console spender is a 32 male (63%), with at least three years of tertiary education and an above average income. That said, women are starting to make a dent in the console gaming spending, grabbing 37% isn’t too shabby – could this mean that we’ll start seeing some male booth babes? I’m all for equal opportunity objectification.

Most spenders purchase using micro transactions in FPS (24%) or action-adventure games (21%), with RPG gamers only accounting for 12% of those purchases. 40% of spenders say high prices deter them from purchasing more – DLC like side missions, map packs and expansions are seen as more expensive than micro transactions and are the least popular items.

Dlc stats

Considering the growth in digital console spending, I think we can expect to see publishers pushing it even more. Want that cool weapon? No problem, it can be yours for the low, low price of some miscellaneous micro transaction in-game currency. I find it particularly interesting that FPS players are the ones buying all the stuff. I somehow imagined that gamers were spending money on extra story lines or missions, but no, it’s all about the weapons and vanity items.

Last Updated: May 30, 2014

72 Comments

  1. HvR - THE Average GAmer

    May 30, 2014 at 11:34

    Hey hitting that average again.

    Although the above average income in SA isn’t exactly wonderful.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief in Space

      May 30, 2014 at 11:37

      Yeah, thought that too

      Reply

      • HvR - THE Average GAmer

        May 30, 2014 at 11:48

        But I have a funny feeling that Zoe is calling me fat.

        Might have something to do with the 3-man LG shirt-tent she sent me.

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief in Space

          May 30, 2014 at 11:49

          XD

          Reply

    • Brady miaau

      May 30, 2014 at 12:38

      Yeah, scary state.

      So, for arguments sake, you are in the top 1 to 2 % according to SARS. not rich, but hey.

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        May 30, 2014 at 12:43

        It’s very scary. Our middle class isn’t exactly rich to begin with, and we’re bound to get taxed more to keep the welfare state afloat. Ignoring the mega-rich in South Africa, the typical South African suburbanite is one or two missed pay cheques away from financial ruin.

        Reply

        • Weanerdog

          May 30, 2014 at 13:40

          “Mega rich in South Africa”, you spelled Isle of Man incorrectly.

          Reply

        • Brady miaau

          May 30, 2014 at 14:22

          All too true. Sad.

          Please insert rant about the greater good here

          Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    May 30, 2014 at 11:35

    Vanity. The more everyone tries to look different the more everyone ends up looking the same.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief in Space

      May 30, 2014 at 11:38

      I’m sure your PowerPuffGirl pistol is pretty unique

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        May 30, 2014 at 11:40

        Just like every other PowerPuffGirl pistol, whatever those are 😉

        Reply

  3. RinceofFuturePast

    May 30, 2014 at 11:42

    • oVgeeeeee Comet Drop

      May 30, 2014 at 12:48

      Thats a Watch Dog fan. Blindly eating up the hype.

      Reply

      • RinceofFuturePast

        May 30, 2014 at 12:54

        Go to google. Type in ‘OVG fuck next gen”. Thank you, have a nice day! BWAHAHA. Don’t dis something based on the same hype you are basing your current argument on.

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          May 30, 2014 at 12:55

          Now now boys! Stop fighting! Don’t make me turn around this car.

          Reply

          • RinceofFuturePast

            May 30, 2014 at 12:59

            But, but, he started it! I have 180 pieces of evidence to prove it, tehehehehehehe

          • oVgeeeeee Comet Drop

            May 30, 2014 at 15:08

            He touched me first.

  4. Sk3tz0

    May 30, 2014 at 11:47

    I’m not a whale.. im just a chubby Tuna..

    Reply

  5. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    May 30, 2014 at 11:47

    >32 year olds have the money… that’s if they’re not spending it on their kids or their German midget porn collection.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      May 30, 2014 at 12:04

      Me >32 year olds have the money
      No kids
      Downloads um…….. series for free.

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Orca

        May 30, 2014 at 12:04

        Jawohl?

        Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        May 30, 2014 at 12:17

        Same! I don’t have kids either. The banana has not spawned. That means; all my randelas go to uhm… games, games, retirement fund and shoes for the missus.

        http://s2.hubimg.com/u/6257105_f520.jpg

        (I’m the last banana)

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Orca

          May 30, 2014 at 12:22

          Shame dude

          Reply

        • Admiral Chief Orca

          May 30, 2014 at 12:22

          So bananas suffer from osteoporosis?

          Reply

        • CAE9872

          May 30, 2014 at 12:33

          I agree on shoes but the better half has a retort now “When I have as many games as you have, then you can start complaining”

          Pretty much shuts me up there and then. Here have a banana rather 😉

          Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          May 30, 2014 at 12:46

          I’m more of an onion

          Reply

    • Admiral Chief Orca

      May 30, 2014 at 12:04

      So the fact that you don’t have kids explains a bit eh?

      Reply

    • HvR - THE Average GAmer

      May 30, 2014 at 12:06

      At least ever since the midget hooker speculation crisis I have been saving some money on the midget porn.

      Reply

    • Brady miaau

      May 30, 2014 at 12:30

      I hear you. I used to have the money too!

      but I have no German midget porn. A little baby and a technically unemployed wife does that to me now. More seriously, who has the money? the more stable 32+ person, makes sense

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        May 30, 2014 at 12:45

        I honestly don’t know, most 32+ year olds are essentially living on credit… (that’s just going by the latest figures)

        Reply

        • Brady miaau

          May 30, 2014 at 13:16

          I had noticed that too.
          I always wonder why people my age can buy such expensive cars and so forth. I have a ton of debt. We call it the house, though.Cars paid, mine german and comfortable. and old 🙂

          Reply

  6. Admiral Chief in Space

    May 30, 2014 at 11:49

    I’m 2 years shy of 32, so does that make me a dolphin or a orca?

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      May 30, 2014 at 11:50

      Sheesh, you’re still a youngster….

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Orca

        May 30, 2014 at 11:52

        Then you, my imaginary friend, are aging faster than me…in a few years……will have to acquire walking stick….so, does that mean my brain ages faster than my body?

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          May 30, 2014 at 11:56

          Yes, banana years are brief. For a brief moment in time, you’re a seedling, then you’re a tiny plant and before you know you’re a peeled banana in a bowl, being drowned by custard….

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            May 30, 2014 at 11:58

            On the banana boat to tummy town!

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            May 30, 2014 at 12:00

            Aye, doing your part in cleansing a colon….

          • Weanerdog

            May 30, 2014 at 13:42

            That’s not custard

    • Alex Hicks

      May 30, 2014 at 11:58

      What the hell. Crikey … I know I’m over the hill; but 7 years your senior … explains the lack of respect I suppose …

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        May 30, 2014 at 11:59

        Tell em’ grandpa! 😛

        Reply

        • Alex Hicks

          May 30, 2014 at 12:05

          Alright. For starters … the apostrophe goes before the “em” because it is replacing the “th” in “them”.

          Also, I remember I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ’em. Give me five bees for a quarter, you’d say.

          Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            May 30, 2014 at 12:05

            Classic grandpa Simpson

          • Skoobaz

            May 30, 2014 at 12:08

            ffs, really? lol

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            May 30, 2014 at 12:18

            Hehehehehe! You’re out OVGing… OVG!

      • Admiral Chief Orca

        May 30, 2014 at 12:03

        I’ll take it easy on you next time then gramps

        Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      May 30, 2014 at 12:05

      What the hell are you playing now?

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Orca

        May 30, 2014 at 12:06

        The part of the pre-whale

        Reply

        • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

          May 30, 2014 at 12:19

          So.. you’re a porpoise?

          Reply

          • Admiral Chief Orca

            May 30, 2014 at 12:19

            Jou ma se porpoise man!

            😛

    • oVgeeeeee Comet Drop

      May 30, 2014 at 12:46

      Whatever you are its better than Spongebob COD

      Reply

  7. CAE9872

    May 30, 2014 at 11:54

    I am well past average then…in terms of age anyway!

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      May 30, 2014 at 12:00

      Me too. I feel so old now.

      Reply

  8. Hammersteyn

    May 30, 2014 at 12:02

    Close enough, but still over.

    Reply

  9. RinceofFuturePast

    May 30, 2014 at 12:15

    Come on, what game hasn’t benefited from microtransactions?

    Reply

    • oVgeeeeee Comet Drop

      May 30, 2014 at 12:36

      Screw this game. I traded it in.
      But I will never trade in 1 or 2.

      Reply

      • RinceofFuturePast

        May 30, 2014 at 12:37

        Haha! Really? dude, it was a fun 2 player game.

        Reply

        • oVgeeeeee Comet Drop

          May 30, 2014 at 12:44

          No it was not.

          Reply

          • RinceofFuturePast

            May 30, 2014 at 12:46

            For someone who claims to have a very good memory it’s pretty shit sometimes.

          • oVgeeeeee Comet Drop

            May 30, 2014 at 13:26

            The guns sucked until NEW game plus (THANKS TO MICRO DICKS) and turning left and right while aiming was broken.
            The only way to aim was to shimmy with the left stick.

  10. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    May 30, 2014 at 12:24

    You’d always think the gullible ones would be the under 20s. I’m surprised that it would the early 30-somethings that have no money sense. I suppose it makes sense, these are the second batch of Gen Y’s. The Gen before the internet. The ones who almost missed out on the craziness of the 80s, He-man and Robotech.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief Orca

      May 30, 2014 at 12:26

      Kid from the 80’s I am.

      That’s why I dig that song from Jack Parow, “I miss”

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        May 30, 2014 at 12:29

        I was never a child. I was hatched fully grown, with a monocle, a gentleman’s stache, a pipe and a bowler’s hat.

        Reply

        • Alex Hicks

          May 30, 2014 at 12:36

          Dammit – Now I feel like buying a monocle and a bowler’s hat. But need to add the sock garters so I can look like a proper English toff

          Reply

          • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

            May 30, 2014 at 12:39

            Like a Proper Sir!

      • HvR - THE Average GAmer

        May 30, 2014 at 16:11

        See now I have to go and listen to the song on Youtube

        Reply

    • Alex Hicks

      May 30, 2014 at 12:28

      So wait – you mean He-Man and Robotech saved me from gullibility. I knew there was a reason for those shows.

      Reply

      • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

        May 30, 2014 at 12:29

        He-man taught us valuable life skills like “refrain from wearing a furry pair of knickers”

        Reply

  11. oVgeeeeee Comet Drop

    May 30, 2014 at 12:35

    32??????
    Then why are all the games made for KIDS??? Even the games with an 18 slapped on them have CHILDISH violence and gore.
    Give us MATURE games with tastefully done MATURE NARRATIVE If you want to appease 63% of the market.

    AND NO MORE CHEAP GAY ELF SEX Bioware. Its for ADULTS remember.

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      May 30, 2014 at 12:40

      I know bud, I know… 🙁

      Reply

  12. Ross Woofels Mason

    May 30, 2014 at 12:43

    Micro-transactions are great when done right.

    Look at DOTA 2 and The Mighty quest for epic loot, nothing I i can buy in either of those games breaks the balance of the game. 90% of the items are vanity items even if it’s a weapon or armor it’s just a skin with no real stats.

    So why buy it? Simply because it looks freaking cool. Same reason I will pay extra for a t-shirt with a cool design on over a plain one, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as your game is well rounded, complete and offers enough to users with out them having to pay money.

    Reason why Dota 2 does so well and is currently smashing their compendium goals like crazy.

    Reply

    • Weanerdog

      May 30, 2014 at 13:45

      I always thought Dota was very expensive being its your soul that you sell. 😛

      Reply

  13. Weanerdog

    May 30, 2014 at 13:48

    Well if the market is looking for whales I’ll be the booth dude. Whats the going rate, I really hope they pay per KG. I assume that’s why they only have skinny girls at these events just to save a buck.

    Reply

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