Gamasutra is reporting that the Entertainment Software Association has released statistics indicating that the US gaming industry is growing significantly faster than the US economy.
According to statistics released by the Entertainment Software Association, the growth of the U.S. video game industry is outpacing the growth of the U.S. economy by a wide percentage, growing at 17% from 2003-2006 as compared to the 4% economic growth during the same period. The ESA has concluded an extensive study on this data, entitled Video Games in the 21st Century. Conducted by Economists Incorporated, the study also finds that the industry directly employed 24,000 in the U.S. at an average salary $92,300 during 2006. The ESA states that the video game industry contributed $3.8 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product in 2006. Though 24,000 are directly employed, according to the report in total 80,000 are employed directly and indirectly by the industry in 31 states and U.S.-based game industry employees received a total of $2.2 billion in compensation.
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