The Biggest Videogame Spenders Live in New York

[Greg Tito]

The Biggest Videogame Spenders Live in New York

Report shows seven of the top 50 cities in the U.S. that spend the most on games are in New York.

Concentrations of gamers is not a concept that I'd considered much. Now that I think about it, it makes sense that the per capita spending on videogames is higher near college campuses, but then you could also argue the kids probably do most game purchasing at home rather than when they are supposed to be spending money on liquid to fill red cups. If you really wanted to find out where people buy the most games, you'd need to collect information from every retail store and put it on map. Luckily, that's exactly what the startup business Bundle did by collecting anonymous spending reports from credit cards and GameStops across the nation. The community that spends the most money on videogames is Huntington, New York spending 4.08 times the national average, followed closely by nearby North Hempstead at 2.32.

"We established our rankings by looking at average transactions at game merchants GameStop, Steam and EBGames in the top 100 cities in the U.S. from July 2010 to June 2011," Bundle reported on its methodology. "Data is based on millions of anonymized spending transactions from the U.S. government, Citi and other third party data providers."

There are several bits of information missing from this report. I'd like to know what the percentage of the sales were from new games as opposed to used. These numbers also ignore the growing downloadable market, which anecdotally I've found most gamers use when purchasing PC titles. So is this map a comprehensive snapshot of games purchasing across the United States? No.

But it sure is fun to scan the list of top 50 cities looking for your town. I went down with my finger and wasn't surprised to see Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina enter in at #40 and #43. The Triangle area is not only where the office of The Escapist resides but also a large number of developers like Epic Games and Insomniac call the area home.

Here is the full list, for your viewing pleasure. Is your town on it?


1. Huntington, New York
2. North Hempstead, New York
3. Laredo, Texas
4. Chesapeake, Virginia
5. Modesto, California
6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7. El Paso, Texas
8. Cincinnati, Ohio
9. Buffalo, New York
10. Virginia Beach, Virginia
11. Rochester, New York
12. Birmingham, Alabama
13. Miami, Florida
14. Honolulu, Hawaii
15. Toledo, Ohio
16. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
17. Corpus Christi, Texas
18. Plano, Texas
19. Fresno, California
20. St. Louis, Missouri
21. San Antonio, Texas
22. Wichita, Kansas
23. Montgomery, Alabama
24. Tulsa, Oklahoma
25. Hialeah, Florida
26. Riverside, California
27. Lubbock, Texas
28. San Bernardino, California
29. Fort Worth, Texas
30. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
31. Fort Wayne, Indiana
32. Bakersfield, California
33. Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky
34. Chula Vista, California
35. Albuquerque, New Mexico
36. Akron, Ohio
37. Jacksonville, Florida
38. Greensboro, North Carolina
39. Tucson, Arizona
40. Raleigh, North Carolina
41. Stockton, California
42. Arlington, Texas
43. Durham, North Carolina
44. Long Beach, California
45. Chandler, Arizona
46. Lincoln, Nebraska
47. Anchorage, Alaska
48. New York, New York
49. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
50. Aurora, Colorado

Source: Bundle [http://money.bundle.com/article/game-obsessed-us-cities-spend-most-video-games]

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[Ghengis John]

Looking at this list might explain why so many games at least make a visit to new york.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

just curious..but what in the hell is down in laredo tx that causes it to be such a powerhouse in spending on games? anyone?

otherwise that might be a rough sketch of truth..yeah my town buys games but obviously no where near the top 20, but obviously close or above other ones there.

 

[New Troll]

Number 24. Yay?

But since there's little else to do here than play games, it makes perfect sense. Too bad most gamers here aren't into non-video gaming.

 

[Valagetti]

Okay, so what about the rest of the world?
Surprised to see Texas coming up quite often.

 

[mrm5561]

woooo pittsburgh

 

[Sovereignty]

Wow Los Angeles isn't on the list?

I find that strange.

 

[-Samurai-]

Number 15? Not bad, Toledo. It's probably mostly me, though.

 

[cjbos81]

I'm surprised that no city in Massachusetts made the top 50.

 

[emechbjm]

It proberbly doesn't hurt that a good % of games (at least super-hero ones) are based in their home city....

 

[Jodah]

Buffalo is the closest to me on the list. About 2 and a half hours away give or take.

 

[Xman490]

Two of them are in Dade county in Florida: Miami, my home metropolis, (at 13. unlucky much?) and Hialeah (an immigrant-heavy city from what I hear, even for South Florida standards).

 

[Anacortian]

With Chesapeake and Virginia Beach ranking, a united Tidewater could have topped the list. You can't tell me Norfolk isn't just a bit past 50, and Newport News and Hampton Road could push it to first place.

Tidewater, if only you would incorporate into one great metropolis.

 

[dmase]

New york city itself is incredible at making a show of releases. They have a lot of cool gamestops and every time they have a release there is a big party at at least one. And they are only like 10 blocks away from one another. Really the only two thing's NY has more of is pharmacies.

 

[tekdeath]

Two of them are in Dade county in Florida: Miami, my home metropolis, (at 13. unlucky much?) and Hialeah (an immigrant-heavy city from what I hear, even for South Florida standards).

Hialeah is basically a separate country within Florida. Mostly Cubanos. I find it funny Miami ranks so high XD.

 

[FoolKiller]

Wow. Populated places are populated. Who would have guessed?

A lot of California and Texas. This isn't a shock.

 

[Frostbite3789]

of all the cites in Texas I don't see Houston or Austin WTF??

I'm thinking it has to do with population size versus games bought or something. Friggin' Laredo and Plano made it. Plano isn't a city. It's a suburb.

 

[Snotnarok]

I live in NY, I can say why this probably happens ...'cause everything else is too bloody expensive. I mean just living in NY is an arm and a leg