Report: US digital entertainment spend rises in 2022
March 7, 2023
Overall US consumer spending across digital and physical home entertainment formats in 2022 was more than $36.5 billion (€34.2bn), an 11.4 per cent increase from the almost $33 billion consumers spent in 2021, driven by a raft of strong franchise properties coming from cinemas and television reports The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG).
Consumers spent $34.5 billion on digital entertainment purchases (EST), rentals (TVoD) and subscriptions for the full year, a jump of 14 per cent over full year 2021. Spending on subscription streaming rose more than more than 17 per cent for full year 2022, topping $30 billion.
In the year’s final quarter, overall consumer spending rose 8.3 per cent, representing just over $9.5 billion, even though box-office spending on the titles released to the home in the fourth quarter fell almost 25 per cent from the year earlier period. New theatrical releases are historically a key driver of home entertainment spending. Consumers spent almost $9 billion on EST, TVoD and subscriptions in the fourth quarter of 2022, an increase of 11.5 per cent.
Highlights for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022:
- EST were up 2 per cent for the year, with spending on theatrical content up 11 per cent and spending on TV content down 13 per cent.
- After strong gains in the first three quarters of the year, EST of theatrical content were down 16 per cent in the fourth quarter. This was due to smaller box office titles released, including less favourable home entertainment genres like horror and comedy.
- The surge in theatrical new releases in the first three quarters also benefited premium physical formats, with spending on 4K Blu-ray titles ending the year with 20 percent growth. The most in-demand 4K titles of 2022 reflect many of the year’s biggest titles overall, including The Batman, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (pictured), Jurassic World: Dominion, SpiderMan: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick.
- Digital purchases of TV product experienced declines of 12.8 per cent for the full year, but only 2.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, which was driven by strong demand for the most recent season of the hit series Yellowstone, along with previous seasons and the spinoff 1883.
- Among the year’s best-performing titles across all transactional formats, excluding Premium, were Dune, Encanto, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Jurassic World: Dominion, Moonfall, No Time to Die, Sing 2, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, Uncharted and Yellowstone Season 5.
- Premium digital releases enjoy strong consumer interest and spending in this window is included in DEG tracking for 2022.
- US consumer spending on subscription streaming rose to $7.9 billion in fourth quarter 2022, with growth slowing slightly to 15.4 per cent. Spending on subscription streaming for the full year was $30 billion, an increase of more than 17 per cent.
- In parallel, ad-supported premium AVoD and FAST content reached an estimated advertising revenue of $16.8 billion in 2022 according to estimates from Omdia[, as more major streamers diversified their offerings to include lower cost subscription plans with ads. Omdia estimates show ad revenue grew by more than 40 per cent for the full year.