Gamer headphones have been taking off like nobody’s business. We’ve seen everything from your average old, stock Xbox Headset to your top-of the line, Star Wars: Old Republic-endorsed signature cans. And at the front of this has been Turtle Beach, one of the few headphone manufacturers to focus almost entirely on the gamer-oriented headphone crowd. And by all indications, it’s been taking off: At least according to the NPD Group, a sales analyst and quite reputable firm. you see, the firm recently added “gamer headphones” as a sales category, distinguishing it from any other variety we tend to talk about. Is this really that big of news? You bet your sweet cans it is! Let’s look at some of the numbers.
Turtle Beach Headphones
First of all, in 2011 alone, Turtle Beach ranked as the highest selling third-party distributor of video game accessories. Any accessories. This means they outranked the people making controllers, cases, peripheries, all of it. That’s quite an impressive feat when you stop to think about it, but considering Turtle Beach produced 12 of the top 25 leading gamer headphone models in the previous year, we aren’t totally blown away. All of this innovation has added up to some pretty serious spank, though. According to the NPD, Turtle Beach owned a whopping 50% of the total headphone gaming market last year. That’s around $351 million, and as the company gobbled up another 8% in December, we’re expecting even larger returns int he coming year.
But why would anyone want a pair of gamer headphones? What, for that matter, even are gamer headphones? It may seem far-fetched, but when you stop to think about it, the market production really makes a lot of sense. Let’s skew it this way:
Think of video games as one giant, interactive movie. Players become part of the virtual world in a way that’s simply not attainable with a two-dimensional, plot-oriented piece of film. However, the same level of sound quality is being used, and without an high-quality pair of headphones, a lot of this is lost to the breeze. With us so far? Great.
But gamers also like to chat. They talk with friends online while playing, an aspect that’s at the heart of online competition. As such, any so-called “gamer headphone” must bring the pain where sound quality and performance is concerned, but equally as much proficiency where over-the-air conversation is involved. In other words, gamer headphones as a category do in fact make sense, as the headphones must perfectly combine in-cap mics while also providing an unbeatable listening experience. Surround sound plays a large part in this as well, though that’s a topic for another day.
All in all, what you should take away is this: Gamer headphones are serious business now, and in the coming year, we’re expecting massive innovations.
