We all know that gaming is big business, but a forecast from tech advisers Gartner Inc. drives that point home. According to the report, gamers will spend more than $74 billion on games in 2011, which is an increase of just over 10 percent from the $67 billion spent during 2010. The majority of that money will be spent on software, too.
The increase is at least due in part to the popularity of smartphones and tablets. As people buy these devices, they naturally look to download applications and games.
"Mobile games are the most downloaded application category across most application stores," says principal research analyst Tuong Nguyen. "For this reason, mobile gaming will continue to thrive as more consumers expand their use of new and innovative portable connected devices."
Online and social gaming was the least lucrative category that Gartner tracked, following hardware and software sales, but the firm expects that to change within the next few years. According to their predictions, online gaming will grow 27 percent annually from now until 2015. By the time 2015 rolls around, Gartner forecasts that people will spend $112 billion on games annually.
If you needed some numbers to make you feel validated about your hobby, these should definitely help. Otherwise, egad, that's a lot of scratch.
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