With incredibly fortuitous timing – since I just talked about my own Impulse Buyer’s Remorse the other day, the NPD has just come out with a survey of Canadian gamers showing that 40% have made impulse purchases in the last 6 months.

Obviously those sales don’t equate to 40% of purchases. In fact, the NPD study says that bargain hunting plays a large part in the data, specifying “the average price of impulse purchases was only $27.19 compared with $42.97 for planned purchases. ”

Some other findings:

* Only three per cent of reported purchases were pre-ordered
* Females are more likely to buy on impulse; 46 per cent of impulse buyers are females compared to only 37 per cent of planned buyers
* Sequels sell; almost 20 per cent of gamers said they were motivated to buy a game that was a sequel to one they had previously enjoyed
* 43 per cent of impulse buyers paid only $10 – $20 for their last game purchase
* Only 15 per cent of impulse purchases were made online

I know I lamented about my Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes purchase, but over the last month I have spent ~$110 and bought 28 full games (and some that are ‘gold’ versions with expansions and collections) – and some of that (mostly the Direct2Drive sale) was on impulse. And I don’t regret a penny of that!

Check out the NPD Press Release here!

Source: PC World, NPD Press