Wow, you guys sure do like to spend money on games!
But it's not just that. A lot of you have found ways to be incredibly resourceful with trade-ins, GameStop credits, eBay and the like. I'm impressed both by some of the staggering numbers I've seen plunged into your consoles—which started off somewhere around $300-$500 but that you managed to raise into the thousands, supplying your new-gen consoles with extra hardware and accessories and dozens of games—as well as how much you've managed to save on them.
This week I asked you guys to list out all the ways in which you've spent your hard-earned bills on the three big consoles—Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U. Let's see how that turned out.
Xbox One
Lowest: $441. Ah, the powers of trade-ins! This reader managed to swap an iPhone for some credit off their Xbox One, and still score three games (a discount off Watch Dogs thanks to GameStop points, a copy of Madden that came with the console, and Destiny), the Kinect and an Xbox Live gold account all for under 500 bucks. An outlier, to be sure, but not a complete rarity.
Highest: $5,460. When you're buying a huge stack of games (19, to be exact), four extra controllers and a fancy new HDTV, the numbers will certainly add up against you.
But what about the common cost of your wallet that readers have poured into their Xbox Ones? The most frequently occurring numbers range from $500-$800, with the $500 range winning out, but a good amount of you also spent in the $1,100+ range, spanning into the $2,000s. The list includes a wide variety of games, Xbox Live gold subscriptions and even a few for EA Access, headsets, the media remote (which a few of you have reviewed negatively), and a bunch of play and charge kits for your controllers.
PS4
Lowest: $292. $292! Good on you. This reader used some GameStop credit to knock the price down on their PS4, and still managed to get Infamous: Second Son (on sale), Watch Dogs (packaged with the console) and subscribe to PlayStation plus.
Highest: $6,050. That's a lot of cash! Which happens, when you're also buying a fancy HDTV and a receiver to go with 13 games (and innumerable indies) and accessories.
The most common value people spent on their PS4s is within the $600-$700 range. About equal amounts of people spent between $800-$900 as the more frugal ones did at $400-$500. But an overwhelming majority spent over $1,000 (up to a whopping $3,000, but the more common range being between $1200-$1300) on their PS4s. A lot of the commonalities were games of all types—including cheaper digital titles and the big AAAs—numerous hard drive upgrades, cameras, headsets, controllers, charging docks, and premium subscriptions.
Wii U
Lowest: $187.97. Thanks to the powers of eBay, this reader managed to get a $150 Wind Waker-bundled Wii U plus five additional games coming in at just under 200 bucks. That is damn impressive.
Highest: $2,350. No TVs were purchased in this roundup, which seemed to be a large contributing factor to the high costs readers spent on their PS4s and Xbox Ones. Instead, this reader spent most of their Wii U funds on their collection of 106 games.
Most readers spent around $400-$500 on their Wii Us, the $600-$700 range being a close runner-up. But if you add up all the gamers who spent over $1,000 (up to the several people who spent over $2,000), it blows both those groups away. Many, many of you managed to score a cheaper Wii U by getting a refurbished one. The common purchases in addition to that—not including the stacks and stacks of games, especially off of the Virtual Console—are pro controllers, Wiimotes and nunchucks, bigger hard drives, charging cables, and a few cradles for those game pads.
My overall takeaway, though? A lot of you are very good at putting those GameStop credits, bundle packages, trade-ins and premium subscriber bonuses to good use, and have managed to come away with a huge haul of games for not much cash. Congratulations on gaming and spending the smart way.
To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.