As digital goods in the social game sphere become even larger and more accepted by the social audience, developers have been finding ways to make micro-transactions and virtual goods appealing to gamers. A survey from PlaySpan says that not only are digital goods selling, they are selling incredibly well, and primarily to a female market it would seem. PlaySpan's survey shows that women are the driving force behind the growing digital goods market that has come to dominate the free-to-play and MMO genres.
The report focuses primarily on the fact that digital goods sales are strongest on social networking games over any other genre, and that women in the U.S. over the age of 25 are spending a disproportionate amount of money on these goods. While men make up the driving force in terms of gameplay time and overall sales, the average female is still spending $20 more than her male counterpart.
The biggest sales booster for games though? Virtual money. Respondents to the survey stated that over the past 12 months, 56% of them had used real money to purchase in-game currency. The online games with the most sales were those that offer a free-to-play model, totaling 45% of all real world sales.
Most gamers that have purchased virtual goods are purchasing directly from first-party sources as well. 41% of respondents indicated a preference of buying directly from the developer.
The total gaming population also responded to several questions regarding purchases made, and 75% stated that they had indeed made a purchase for virtual content sometime over their gaming careers. Even more surprising is that 30% of respondents plan to increase the amount of money spent on these goods over the next 12 months and the reasoning seems to be that more and more people are playing online than before with 44% of gamers admitting that they have increased total play time over the last year.
