Call of Duty Buyers Spend a Lot of Money on Games, says Nielsen

With this year's holiday blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 having just launched, the folks at Nielsen decided to examine some of the usage trends and buying patterns related to the top-selling Activision franchise. Nielsen took a close look at awareness and anticipation for Modern Warfare 2, but what we found most interesting is that households purchasing the game would appear to be big spenders in the video game category in general. 

These households have an annual income of $100,000 or more and "Nielsen Homescan for Video Game indicates that households that bought the original title spend nearly 3 times the amount of money on video game purchases annually vs. typical video game buying household, and even outspend the average household that purchases shooter titles more broadly." It's no wonder that Modern Warfare 2 is expected to surpass $500 million in its first week sales. 

As Nielsen points out, Modern Warfare customers are hugely valuable because they have the money and are willing to spend it. "These higher purchase rates make Modern Warfare franchise fans valuable, highly desirable customers at retail – which is perhaps why we see a concerted effort to entice them to not only purchase the game itself, but also special editions and limited-edition consoles," Nielsen said.