Image via Respawn

This time of year, video game publishers and analysts are reporting the last batches of data from 2022 — Square Enix was but touting the success of Last Fantasy Fourteen in its yearly earnings report. In fact, it'due south subscriptions like that, along with DLC and microtransactions, that fabricated up the majority of revenue for the gaming industry final yr.

The stat comes from Mat Piscatella, executive director of the NPD Group. Piscatella tweeted that "DLC, [microtransactions, and] subscription[due south] deemed for just shy of 60% of non-mobile video game content spending in the U.s.a. in 2022." This is partially due to the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as information technology led to more than games being delayed beyond 2022. Notwithstanding, spending in these areas had been a rising trend before the pandemic. "In 2022 this effigy was well under half," Piscatella added. That would mean something of a 10% increase in sales in these areas over the last 5 to half dozen half-dozen years. This is all according to the NPD Group'south Q4 market written report.

Equally Piscatella points out, this could lead to even more of a focus on these revenue streams from gaming developers and publishers in the hereafter. We're non too far out from the next DLC expansion for Destiny 2, in fact. The Witch Queen launches on February 22.