U.S. Virtual Goods Market Worth $200M+

I just want to point everyone to a great post by Charles Hudson on estimating the size of the U.S. virtual goods market. Hudson, if you don't know, organizes the Virtual Goods Summit and previously worked at Gaia Online, so he's got a fair amount of experience in thinking about virtual goods. As he cautions, though, these are just estimates based on a lot of assumptions that he lays out.  He puts the total U.S. market at $200 million or more, but you should read the whole post for his explanation and, if possible, contribute back some more numbers. It's worth noting that $200 million is low compared to some overall estimates, but the virtual goods market has boomed in Asia in ways that it's just beginning to here. That also comes with its own complications.

"I would have really liked to make a global estimate, but I think that’s really difficult. The reason why it’s so hard to estimate is that there are a lot of players in various countries that are large players in their own geographies but not major players on a global scale," explains Hudson. "So making a global estimate would require a deeper understanding of what’s happening in some specific key countries such as Korea, China, Germany, and some of the other emerging gaming markets. One other reason I don’t think it’s that a global estimate is as useful is that relatively few companies have shown an ability to succeed in multiple countries. There are a few exceptions (Habbo, Runescape, Nexon) and a few others that prove the rule (CyWorld)." [via Charles Hudson]

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