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Do Americans Spend More On Video Games Or Movies?

Americans spend more on video games than on tickets to the movies. Grand Theft Auto V was the fastest-selling entertainment product of all time, with sales of $1 billion in just three days.

But when you factor in everything — not just movie tickets, but on demand, rentals, etc. — Americans still spend way more on movies than they do on video games.

"In the film industry, the box office is only the first release," NYU economist Bill Greene told me. "The revenue stream goes on and on and on."

This is very different from the way the video game industry works.

"You buy the game and can use it in that medium forever. There's one point of sale and that's it," said professor Robert Bloomfield, who studies video game and virtual world economies at Cornell.

But that model is changing, Bloomfield says. Candy Crush Saga, the wildly popular mobile game, is free — but players can pay for tools that help them finish levels or advance to the next level. Players spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on those tools.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Seth Maxon

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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