Fewer Hours Playing Doesn’t Curtail Fortnight Spending
It turns out that you Fortnite addicts are
probably not prone to violent behavior in real life, despite what the president
and video-game detractors say (and have said, on and off, for decades, before
there even was a Fortnite). That’s according to a new
statement from the American Psychological Association. But that
doesn’t mean you’re not total spendthrifts.
A new report
from online financial marketplace LendEDU—a two-years-in-the-making followup
to its previous
“Finances of Fortnite,” which we covered in 2018—says that more users are spending money in the game. Spenders have increased
from 66 percent of players up to 77 percent. The average in-app spender is
shelling out more money, too, with the average moving from $84.67 in 2018 to
$102.42 now. That’s a 21 percent increase.
Here’s a sad stat: 35 percent of those surveyed thought that making an in-game purchase somehow gave them an advantage in the game. That’s way up from 2018’s 20 percent.
For another one-third (34 percent), Fortnite is the first
game in which they ever made an in-game purchase—that’s actually down from 37
percent in 2018.
How about time spent in Fortnite simply playing (a.k.a. trying to stay alive)? The hours spent in the game have dwindled a bit in two
years. Click the Play button below, and you can see the changes, thanks to an
interactive Infogram chart.
An interesting new wrinkle this year is that the IRS—which wants
its pound of flesh
from anyone using virtual currency—had some language on its site at one point
that made it sound like Fortnite’s V-Bucks might be targeted for taxation. That actually
won’t happen; the IRS changed the language to reflect that. But LendEDU asked
about it and found that 75 percent of people didn’t even know about the IRS
wanting V-Bucks reported in taxes, and that another 63 percent said they
wouldn’t account for it on their taxes even if they had to!
LendEDU also wanted to find out whether esports were capturing more
hearts and minds than watching traditional sports. In all of the questions, traditional sports—a major event like the Super Bowl, or a pay-per-view,
or just the leagues
in general—is the winner.
For a full look at all the questions asked in the survey of
1,000 people conducted by Pollfish in February 2020 on behalf of LendEDU, go
read the full
results.
