NPD’s Mat Piscatella: digital PC spending declines, no single platform to blame

The US video game content generated $35.4 billion in revenue in 2019, which is 2 percent up from 2018. That said, the overall PC software spending declined last year.

Leading game sales expert Mat Piscatella of the NPD Group commented on declining consumer spending on PC content across various stores. Piscatella attributes this to “the great PC distribution platform wars of 2019.” However, he cautions against laying the blame on any one platform, such as the Epic Games Store. According to the analyst, “all the movement with dist platforms contributed to that” resulting in less emphasis on “enhancing consumer experience & choice and minimizing confusion.”

Several factors were disruptive throughout 2019, like the introduction of subscriptions on PC, a weak year for big games in general, and weekly free giveaways from the Epic Games Store. While the industry at large is suffering from deteriorating digital PC sales, Epic’s marketplace is growing at an impressive rate.

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