Made in America: Game industry grows 4 times faster than U.S. economy

The economy of the United States is on the upswing. Unemployment is down to 5.8 percent, and we’re adding hundreds of thousands of new jobs every months — and the video game industry is partially responsible for that.

The Entertainment Software Association, the game-industry lobbying group, released a report today that found that business grew more than 9 percent annually from 2009 to 2012. That rate more than quadrupled the wider U.S. economy, which spent those years stuck around a mediocre 2 percent growth. While the U.S. struggles to hang on to high-paying manufacturing jobs, the creative industries like gaming and Hollywood continue to create growth. That helped games contribute more than $6.2 billion to the American economy in 2012.