Wow, WoW

In case anyone has been wondering if the video game industry is booming, please refer to this handy infographic detailing revenues, demographics and other statistics of World of Warcraft alone. It's statistics time: This one game brings in $800 million a year in revenue, which the chart helpfully points out is larger than the GDP of Samoa. 11.5 million players subscribe worldwide, and Americans play an average of 22.7 hours a week. This is all for one game, people. Even withstanding the fact that Wow is an outlier, gaming is a $20 billion industry. The Wii has made gaming accessible to casual gamers and non-gamers (your mom, your grandparents, your dog), helping to make 65% of American households gaming households in 2008. Who else wants in?