NPD Group Blog » Want Some Games With That Music Purchase?

Want Some Games With That Music Purchase?

Monday, March 8th, 2010
By Anita Frazier, Entertainment Industry Analyst Toys & Video Games

When I was 16, I got my first non-babysitting job and spent four months toiling at the drive-through window of my local Carl’s Jr. restaurant. Being a quick study, “Want some fries with that shake?” or “Can I interest you in a hot apple pie this evening?” soon rolled off my tongue at the end of every order as I eagerly attempted to up sell customers.

As I read through our new Online Gaming 2010 report, issued earlier this week, this memory came flooding back to me as one finding in particular caught my eye. One part of the report covers digital acquisition of game content, and the top retailers/websites where gamers purchased content in the past three months. While iPhones and iPod Touch devices are clearly quite popular, it still was surprising to me to learn that the top site that gamers acquired digital content was iTunes.com. Now it could be that gamers are going to iTunes.com specifically to acquire gaming applications, and certainly some are, but I think the far more likely scenario for the majority of owners of these devices is that they’re going to the site to access other types of content and happen upon an interesting looking gaming app in the meantime.

In this sense, iTunes.com could be benefiting from the very same up sell long favored by fast-food restaurants and enjoyed by mass market merchandisers as shoppers pick up impulse items to go along with their planned purchases.

Share and Enjoy: