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Gamers spend most per transaction on PS4

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SuperData average transation

Digital games are here to stay. People spent more on digital console games over the holiday season than ever before, jumping 10% on PS4 and Xbox One. The sales across platforms are staggering and ever increasing, but all platforms are not created equal.

According to the guys at SuperData, while platforms are selling more digital games than ever, they’re also offering more discounted games leading to a lower average transaction cost.

Aggressive sales of digital games on consoles allowed the category to grow 10 percent compared to December a year earlier. Totaling $110 million in sales, digital unit sales on both the PS4 and XOne jumped as the year came to a close. Compared to November, both platforms sold on average 12 times more units (full game downloads), but obviously did so at a lower than usual price-per-unit. The monthly average transaction value on PS4 dropped from $20 to $11, and from $21 to $7 on the XOne. By comparison, the average transaction value on Steam dropped to $2, down from $8 in November, as a result of this year’s Winter Sale.

Obviously the Steam Holiday sale greatly skews these numbers. Most games are discounted to ridiculous prices – you can pick up some incredible titles for as little as $1. It’s no wonder the average transaction value dropped to $2. I’m just surprised by the different between the consoles. Games are generally priced the same, although Xbox One did have some incredible sales over the holiday period, such as Far Cry 4 for an absolute steal.

I know how much I spend on average at retail – I only really buy games if I can get a deluxe or collector’s edition so it often ends up being a lot of money. However, I still pick up the odd game on Steam or via the PSN. I wonder if I’m bringing those statistics up or down.

Last Updated: January 15, 2015

25 Comments

  1. Marcus

    January 16, 2015 at 06:58

    I must be the cheapest PS4 owner. I don’t buy from PSN. I only download my free game(s) and leave.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 16, 2015 at 07:29

      I bought a couple of games on sale in the PSN store like Garden Warfare and Sniper Elite 3. Also Diablo 3 was only R600 I think?

      Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 16, 2015 at 07:30

      Hahahahaha

      Reply

    • Jonah Cash

      January 16, 2015 at 08:41

      I bought a few games last year: Ground Zeroes(could have waited a bit), Monopoly(My wife loves it), Trine 1(loved 2 which we got for free) and The wolf among us(really cheap)… Also bought that golf game, but has since deleted it, 800mb game, 1,2 gig patch and last week another 1,2gig patch…

      Reply

  2. Admiral Chief

    January 16, 2015 at 07:30

    Dat Steam sales

    Reply

  3. Hammersteyn

    January 16, 2015 at 07:31

    • Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

      January 16, 2015 at 07:44

      You are correct Sir!

      Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 16, 2015 at 08:14

      Hahahaha

      Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 16, 2015 at 08:14

      I’d even take two!

      Reply

    • Jonah Cash

      January 16, 2015 at 08:42

      Or wait for it to go on sale and buy it for 50c!!!

      Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      January 16, 2015 at 08:42

      I think the Beat Hazard DLC did cost me $1 😀

      Reply

  4. Quo Vadis?

    January 16, 2015 at 07:53

    Maybe cause the xbox isn’t used for gaming now is it? More for “other” entertainment. Mystery solved!

    Reply

    • Pieter Kruger

      January 16, 2015 at 08:20

      It’s “per transaction” Maybe Sony is just ripping the ponies off? Either way, with Xbox One outselling PS4 in the US this holiday (console and game wise), and with Sony closing stores again to “re focus”, they need to make money fast!

      Reply

      • Quo Vadis?

        January 16, 2015 at 09:42

        The console wars taken to another level! If this happened in SA, the Competition Commission would be banging on Xbox’s door to dig for “anti competitive practices and price fixing/ collusion”

        Reply

  5. CAE9872

    January 16, 2015 at 08:02

    I know I contributed last year to that – PSN/XBL were having a hell of a lot of digital sales and great prices.

    Reply

  6. Blood Emperor Trevor

    January 16, 2015 at 08:22

    Is it just me or have the Steam sales become kinda dull? There’s still plenty of good price drops and whatnot, but it seems like the fun has gone out of it. It was the same few games being promoted the most of the time and the longer than usual time frames for the sales took any sense of immediacy out of it. A couple of years ago I’d be logging in every two hours to check what flash sales have gone up, now it’s “meh, wait until I get home.”

    Reply

    • ToshZA

      January 16, 2015 at 08:32

      Yeah I had that same thing. I just logged in once in the morning, and once in the evening. Just to check. And I bought 2 games, but both I was going to pay full price for anyway. There was nothing making me want to spend my money outside of what I intended without sales.

      I suppose I’m lucky. But still, where were the cool badge incentives? Where were those awesome flash sales? Where was that team thing they did in the summer sale?

      Reply

      • Blood Emperor Trevor

        January 16, 2015 at 08:39

        While I bought a few, everything I bought was stuff I’d had my eye on for a while – zero impulse buys. Sounds silly to complain about that somehow lol.

        Reply

        • ToshZA

          January 16, 2015 at 08:50

          Well isn’t that what Steam sales are about? I mean, at least 20% of my library is based on “HOW MUCH?! Yes I’ll take that, thank you!”

          Somehow, that’s kind of the charm of the sale. The numbers are there, but that’s not why we buy. They’ve taken the charm away.

          Reply

  7. Pieter Kruger

    January 16, 2015 at 08:29

    “GAMERS CHARGED MORE PER TRANSACTION ON PS4” Fixed it Zoe, you’re welcome! A lot of games are more expensive on PSN, think LG even ran a story about it a while back? Anyway, now let’s have an article about how Xbox One outsold PS4 (console and game wise) in US this past holiday?

    Reply

    • ToshZA

      January 16, 2015 at 08:30

      Ah, this article is now complete 😀

      Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      January 16, 2015 at 08:40

      If I remember right they did have an article about that.

      Reply

  8. house_hero

    January 16, 2015 at 08:36

    I never really downloaded games until a year ago… But with all the sales that PSN have put out since, I have a huge library of titles… albeit most of them for my PS3…

    Reply

  9. Brady miaau

    January 16, 2015 at 08:37

    $6.88?

    On what? I spent WAAAAAY more than that buying three games, on special.

    Reply

    • ToshZA

      January 16, 2015 at 08:52

      Read the other article. More time was spent playing games on the Xbox One than any other console.

      PS4 fan boys are going to rage so hard.

      Reply

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