The Cost to Entertainment Ratio in Media

Originally this was meant to be a part of a different post, but it ran as a long enough tangent that I decided to split it off.

Lots of people, especially these days, struggle financially. I'm not going to get into the woes of money and the economy, but you do have to consider ways to save money, even in entertainment. As of this writing Idaho's minimum wage is $7.25 which is the same as the Federal Minimum Wage. In order to save money in regards to entertainment your cost per hour to entertain yourself needs to be lower than the amount of money you make per hour and the cost to entertainment ratio of gaming is unbeatable if you know how to play your cards right.

I might be a little biased though. 

I couldn't find a breakdown of the cost so I'm going to do it here. Let's start with some averages.

Average cost of a movie ticket: $8.61
How many American households have computers: 84%
How many American households have gaming consoles: 80%

I'm not going to cite my sources since it's not really the main point, but it's a generalizing so that I don't have to calculate the extra cost of purchasing a game console or computer, because at that point I would then be calculating the cost of a TV to watch a movie and a car to go to a movie theater. You have to draw the line somewhere and so I choose to assume everyone has a TV, a game console, a computer, a car...

a house.

Watching a movie in the theater

Tickets(for two): $17.22

Movie length: Let's be generous and say 2 hours

Cost to entertainment ratio: $8.61 per hour

This is assuming you don't have dinner and don't buy anything from the concession stand (popcorn, drinks, candy)

Watching a movie at home

DVD: I've seen movies range from $10 to $30 so let's say it's $15

Movie length: 2 hours

Cost to entertainment ratio: $7.50 per hour

Reading a book

Cost of book: It varies. I tried googling it but I got some weird results:

I bought 4 trade paperbacks and now I can't afford groceries.

So let's say $10 for a book.

Book length: Again, it varies, but I've been able to read an entire book in a day so let's say 8 hours.

Cost to entertainment ratio: $1,25 per hour.

If you buy my book, however, you will gain money because the pages are actually made of solid gold.

Playing a videogame, Multiplayer

Videogame length varies more than anything else here, so I'm going to use several examples. Since I'm primarily a PC gamer I'm going to use those. I'm also going to use specific examples that are better for two or more people to watch or participate. The Elder Scrolls and Fallout games are amazing, but they work better for solo entertainment. I will be using my own gameplay time in games I have finished, so your mileage may vary.

Borderlands 2

Cost: $20, this is the current price, not on sale, without any DLC.

Game length: Variable. I have played through it multiple times and I have just clocked in my 200th hour (this is my 3rd most played game in my Steam library, under Team Fortress 2 and 7 Days to Die) I do, however, have all the DLC. Sometimes I have skipped a lot of the side quests, sometimes I don't do the DLC, so let's cut off 100 hours to be fair.

Cost to entertainment ratio: $0.20 per hour.

Divinity: Original Sin

Cost: $40

Game length: I haven't played the Enhanced Edition, which includes more stuff. I played the classic edition. So I'm being a little harsh with this one by using the Enhanced price with the Classic gameplay time, which is 67 hours.

Cost to entertainment ratio: $0.60 per hour

Left 4 Dead 2

Cost $20

Game length: Again I'm halving this because L4D has been one of my favorite games but it also has a ton of replay value. So let's say 95 hours.

Cost to entertainment ratio: $0.21 per hour

Playing a videogame, Singleplayer + Watching

Maybe you're not much of a gamer though? Maybe only your spouse is while you prefer to watch a movie. That's cool too! There are games out there that are just as fun to watch as to participate. These are going to have a less efficient cost to entertainment ratio compared to the multiplayer games but they are still significantly better in cost than a movie.

The Walking Dead

Cost: $25

Game length: 29 hours

Cost to entertainment ratio: $1.16 per hour

Life is Strange

Cost: $20

Game length: 13 hours (I cut my time in half because I have played the game twice.)

Cost to entertainment ratio: $1.54

The Stanley Parable

Cost: $15

Game length: 4 hours

Cost to entertainment ratio: $3.75


I will reference some of these specific games (and more!) in another post)

Did you enjoy this post? Then check out more!

Life is Strange Review
TFTBL vs LiS: Episodes 1
Tales from the Borderlands is my GOTY
I, Gamer

Please keep reading I have cats to feed.