Question

The table shows the number of video games sold worldwide for the five​ highest-selling video games in 2010. Assuming this trend continues and that the total sales of all other video games is​ negligible, if a person chooses to purchase one of these video​ games, determine the empirical probability that the person will purchase game 2,5 and 1.

Game 1: 18,200,00
Game 2: 17,360,000
Game 3: 11,410,000
Game 4: 11,160,000
Game 5: 8,450,000
total: 66,580,000

Answer 1

The empirical probability of an event is the ratio of the number of times the event occurred to the total number of observations.

So, for each game, the empirical probability of purchasing that game is given by:

• Game 1: 18,200,000/66,580,000 = 0.273 or 27.3%
• Game 2: 17,360,000/66,580,000 = 0.261 or 26.1%
• Game 3: 11,410,000/66,580,000 = 0.171 or 17.1%
• Game 4: 11,160,000/66,580,000 = 0.168 or 16.8%
• Game 5: 8,450,000/66,580,000 = 0.127 or 12.7%

So the empirical probability of purchasing game 1 is 27.3%, game 2 is 26.1%, and game 5 is 12.7%.

Answer 2

To find the empirical probability that a person will purchase a specific video game, we need to divide the number of sales for that game by the total number of sales of all five games:

Empirical probability of purchasing Game 1 = 18,200,000/66,580,000 = 0.273 or approximately 27.3%
Empirical probability of purchasing Game 2 = 17,360,000/66,580,000 = 0.261 or approximately 26.1%
Empirical probability of purchasing Game 5 = 8,450,000/66,580,000 = 0.127 or approximately 12.7%

Therefore, the empirical probability that a person will purchase Game 1 is about 27.3%, the probability of purchasing Game 2 is about 26.1%, and the probability of purchasing Game 5 is about 12.7%.