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A lot of folks don't realize this, but the video game industry is now the largest entertainment industry on the planet.  Bigger than TV, bigger than Hollywood, bigger than music. The average annual sales in video game related stuff is larger than any of these other industries.

Want some numbers?  How about these!  Remember, these are the numbers for ONE game franchise on ONE system:

",1] ); //--></script> Star Wars: Phantom Menace</td> <td align="right">$431,088,297</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">6</td> <td align="center">2006</td> <td align="left">Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest</td> <td align="right">$422,065,649</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">7</td> <td align="center">2002</td> <td align="left">Spider-Man</td> <td align="right">$403,706,375</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">8</td> <td align="center">2005</td> <td align="left">Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith</td> <td align="right">$380,270,577</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">9</td> <td align="center">2003</td> <td align="left">Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King</td> <td align="right">$377,027,325</td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right">10</td> <td align="center">2004</td> <td align="left">Spider-Man 2</td> <td align="right">$373,524,485</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

I went to see "Running with Scissors" last night, and during the pre-preview section, they played the Gears of War video with the "Mad World" (from Donnie Darko, not the Tears for Fears version) song playing.  It was beautiful on the big screen, and there was lots of oohing and ahing from a mostly older crowd.

Yes, Mainstream.

The Nintendo generation now has spending power, and our time is nigh.

http://www.forbes.com/2001/05/25/0524porn.html

/cough cough

What it lacks in size it makes up for in numbers.

Wait, what?

I lawled

Nope, a good guess.  But the article you cited is about the 'claim' that the porn industry does 10-14 billion a year.  At the end, the actual numbers are forcast at under $4 billion.  Still a lot so...

How much does the Vid-game industry do a year?

According to leading marketing information provider, The NPD Group, annual 2005 U.S. retail sales of video games, which includes console and portable hardware, software and accessories, saw sales of over $10.5 billion - a six percent increase over the $9.9 billion generated in 2004 and another industry record, exceeding the previous record-breaking $10.3 billion generated in 2002.

Full article:  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Jan_17/ai_n16004334

So it looks like the vid game industry is about 2-3 times larger than porn.

Yup, that's why I posted the article. It was the closest thing I could find to a real estimate.

(Using Google, that is)