Last year consumers spent $1.4 billion on PC games!1 But did you know that in 2004, scrapbooking, the hobby that entails compiling pictures & keepsakes in scrapbook albums, raked in $2.6 billion dollars? And it's estimated that the scrapbook industry made over $3 billion in 20053, over twice that of the PC game industry, and over 60 times that which consumers spent on casual game websites!
Other goods that economically eclipse PC game sales are chewing gum purchases, which bring in ~$3.5 billion worldwide,4 and vegan-specific food, whose sales total over $2.8 billion dollars annually.5
These numbers aren't meant to predict the demise of PC games, but are instead meant to put into perspective the financial scale of the modern PC game market. Given the wide availability of the platform itself, I find these numbers terribly surprising.
1 U.S. consumer spent $1.4 billion on PC Games in 2005. 26 May 2006. Metrics 2.0. 18 August 2006. <http://www.metrics2.com/blog/2006/05/26/us_consumer_spent_14_billion_on_pc_games_in_2005.html>.
2 Scrapbooking in America™ Survey Highlights. Creating Keepsakes. 18 August 2006 <http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/service/press/press_view.ihtml?index_field=92>
3 2nd Annual
International Scrapbooking Industry Day. 4 March 2005. Fun Facts Publishing. 18 August 2006. <http://www.funfactspublishing.com/Scrapbook_Day/official_press_release.htm>
4 History of Chewing Gum & Bubble Gum. Parekh, Nilesh. 16 October 2004. Buzzle.com. 19 August 2006. <http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-15-2004-60486.asp>
5 Veganism creates $2.8B market. Long, Levi J. 15 May 2006. Arizona Daily Star. 19 Aug 2006. <http://www.azstarnet.com/business/129192%20>
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#1 KillerTeddy Aug 20, 2006 08:19pm
Fucking Vegans. Out doing us twice!? Outragous.
#2 WholeFnShow Aug 20, 2006 11:57pm
How in the hell do you measure scrapbooking? Is it the sales of the actual books or some type of glossy cover which protects things? I looked at the site and it just said tools and supplies. Maybe this stuff is all designer utilities or something. I don't get it. :?
#3 Fiddytree Aug 21, 2006 01:48am
Yeah, I was wondering that same thing. Do you count the magazines or newspapers or whatever that the things are cut out from? How can you tell which ones sold had something cut out?
#4 jt-3d Aug 21, 2006 06:23pm
Well I was going to spend this weekend drinking beer and playing video games but now I guess I'll give the scrapbooking thing a try.
#5 unitdaisy Aug 24, 2006 09:24am
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
the men out there thought they had control of the family finances but in fact the housewives are spending their nesteggs documenting baby's first everything with over-priced deckle-edged scissors, acid-free albums, hole punches shaped like hearts and maple leaves, tiny tiny grommets, ribbons of all colors, stamp pads, embossing powder, heat guns, adhesive fonts, stickers galore, paint pens, puffy pens, photo corners, glue stick, liquid glue, sticky tabs, archival paper in every color and design from here to sunday. and all of these supplies require dozens of little tiny boxes to keep them all organized and multiple paper racks so a selection is always at hand. they have scrapbooking parties, scrapbooking classes, scarpbooking websites, scrapbooking magazines, entire brick and mortar stores filled with nothing but scrapbook supplies that are always packed. i am not surprised in the least that scrapbooking sales are so healthy - it's not just about sticking the family photos in an album anymore - every page has to be thematically decorated and personally journaled. a pc game will cost you $40-50, a scrapbook can run in the hundreds.
#6 w3a2 Aug 24, 2006 07:40pm
hrmmm, do they have scrapbooking pillowfights in their underwear?
#7 Soup Aug 28, 2006 10:04am
OKAY
FOR THE GOOD OF THE INDUSTRY.
BABY'S FIRST VIDEO GAME SYSTEM MEMORY BOOK
WE SHALL ASSIMILATE AND THUS OVERCOME
#8 Rex Warner Aug 28, 2006 12:51pm
Too bad there are no photos of me with my Atari 2600, else I could MAKE YOUR DREAM COME TRUE. I was the first kid in the family to have ANY sort of video game at home.
But I seriously think someone's playing fast and loose with those numbers. You could call damn near anything scrapbook material, and then go on to say that every box of Pokemon cereal was cut up and pasted into a book. BABY'S FIRST LICENSED PROPERTY PROMOTIONAL COLD BREAKFAST CEREAL PRODUCT.