Virtual Goods to Rake in $1.6 Billion in 2010

Posted 01/26/2010 at 6:56am | by Paul Lilly

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You might scoff at the notion of whipping out your credit card to buy more Reward Points in Mafia Wars, but there are plenty of others who are, and there are now more apps than ever to spend your real-life dough on virtual goods. When all the numbers are tallied, sales of virtual goods in the U.S. is expected to jump over the $1 billion mark in 2009.

And that's just a drop in the bucket compared to other parts of the world. In South Korea, online gamers spent about $3.5 billion on virtual loot, while China managed to fork over $4 billion. By 2012, both markets are expected to spend $5.5 billion each, while the U.S. will part with $1.6 billion in exchange for armor upgrades and other in-game items next year alone, according to a new report by Inside Network.

Those are big numbers, but not yet at the point where mainstream media needs to hit the panic button. The movie Avatar, for example, pulled in $500 million in the U.S. in just a little over a month.

Do you spend part of your paycheck on in-game items? Tell us about it in the comments section below.