Recurrent consumer spending, the metric Take-Two Interactive uses to track in-game spending on things like premium currency as well as digital game goods and content, rose 23 percent to a new record for Grand Theft Auto Online in the months following the game’s Diamond Casino & Resort update.
Rockstar Games parent Take-Two Interactive mentioned the increase in spending in a recent conference call, though specific figures weren’t mentioned beyond just that percentage.
CEO Strauss Zelnick called Grand Theft Auto Online’s casino update, which dropped in July, the game’s biggest content launch ever “delivering record player engagement across daily, weekly, and monthly active users in July, and then again in August.”
Players aren’t able to directly spend real-world money on digital chips for betting in Grand Theft Auto Online’s casino, however they are able to purchase in-game currency that can then be converted into chips in the game itself. That extra step, and the fact that players can’t cash out in-game winnings back into real money, likely aims to distance the casino from legally dubious online gambling. However, that slight distinction hasn’t stopped the casino from being restricted in certain countries.
For the company as a whole, recurrent consumer spending increased 39 percent year over year and “significantly exceeded” Take-Two’s expectations. That growth was led by virtual currency sales from NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto Online, and Red Dead Online, as well as by content sales from Borderlands 3.
Specific numbers for recurrent consumer spending weren’t provided, but given that 37 percent of Take-Two Interactive’s total GAAP net revenue came from that source, roughly $317.4 million in revenue was likely due to the sale of premium currency and digital game goods.
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2019/11/...no-update/