12% of Americans have bought virtual goods in the last 12 months

A recent survey by commissioned by PlaySpan and reported by GigaOm says that 12% of Americans have spent real-world money on virtual goods in the last 12 months.

There are some interesting takeaways:

• The biggest categories of spender, where over 15% of respondents had bought virtual goods were:
• Males aged 12-17 and 18-24
• Females aged 12-17, 25-34 and 35-44.
• Woman aged 18-24 and older men were the least likely to have spent money
• Console gamers were the least likely to have bought virtual goods (although to be fair, this may be due to lack of opportunity)
• The average transaction value was $30, while 15% of respondents said that they spent more than $100

Those figures are reassuring to all of those companies trying to make headway in the new world of “freemium” gaming.