Surprising Facts/Statistics About Video Gamers

[Paul C]

I kind of have a hard time believing that the "average" age of gamers is 34.  While I know that there are plenty of people that age and above that play video games, it would take a HUGE number of people at or above 34 to balance the scales considering how many kids are gamers.  Just seems skewed to me.  24 would be much more believable.

I also have a REALLY hard time believing that 93% of games are purchased in the presence of parents.  What are the stipulations of that statistic?   Under 18?  And if so, I still don't believe it for a second.  Sounds like someone trying to make us think that its really easy for parents to have control over that aspect of kids' lives.  I know that, at 33 years old, I always buy games when I am helping my mommy buy groceries...

[0-Storm]

#'s & stats can be manipulated into supporting whatever a researcher's intentions are.

My wife's 80 year-old great grandmother plays farmville & ONLY farmville. Hence she could be considered a "gamer". If she participated in this study it would've jacked the average age of a "gamer" way up.

[Leo1]

I kind of have a hard time believing that the "average" age of gamers is 34.  While I know that there are plenty of people that age and above that play video games, it would take a HUGE number of people at or above 34 to balance the scales considering how many kids are gamers.  Just seems skewed to me.  24 would be much more believable.

They actually say 37 now.And I'm not so sure there aren't those huge numbers of people above 37 out there that play games. My parents are well above 37 and would be classified as gamers and several older relatives in my family would be as well. The statistic is believable to me judging from the individuals I'm familiar with.Our society is getting more computer savy by the day. There are a lot of older individuals out there that feel comfortable with a modern PC and routinely do things like email, play casual games, make purchases online, log on to Facebook, etc. They likely couldn't even tell you that Sony manufactures the Playstation, but they're gamers none the less.

I also have a REALLY hard time believing that 93% of games are purchased in the presence of parents.  What are the stipulations of that statistic?   Under 18? 

 I imagine they just figured their qualifications were self explanatory. It's certainly just looking at game purchases from individuals that are under age 18. No one cares or would consider it important if a 19 year old purchased a game with a parent nearby.And I don't know, the few games I purchased while growing up were bought when I was shopping with at least one of my parents. I imagine a healthy amount are bought under similar circumstances.And I imagine it's the parents that were primarily the ones surveyed about this. They're not necessarily going to be aware that little Johnny bought that $5 used game at GameStop when he was at the mall with his friends last week, but they're certainly going to recall that last month when he dragged them in there and talked them into buying a game, that he purchased a game while under their supervision. So I can see some doubt in that statistic, but I don't really think it's been intentionally fudged to put the industry into a more positive light.

[MoonMetropolis]

I also have a REALLY hard time believing that 93% of games are purchased in the presence of parents.  What are the stipulations of that statistic?   Under 18?  And if so, I still don't believe it for a second.  Sounds like someone trying to make us think that its really easy for parents to have control over that aspect of kids' lives.  I know that, at 33 years old, I always buy games when I am helping my mommy buy groceries...

Yes, actually, if you had bothered to read the link before making your condescending post, you would see that the study says PARENTS OF CHILDREN UNDER 18.

[VideoGameCritic]

Moonmetropolis,
I hope you don't feel like we're all coming down on you.  I am skeptical of the study but I do think it raises some interesting talking points, so I'm glad you took the time to post it.
Dave

[MoonMetropolis]

Moonmetropolis,I hope you don't feel like we're all coming down on you.  I am skeptical of the study but I do think it raises some interesting talking points, so I'm glad you took the time to post it.Dave

It's fine.  Thank you.  It just seems like some people are going out of their way to be the devil's advocate about everything in the study.

[Paul Campbell]

I also have a REALLY hard time believing that 93% of games are purchased in the presence of parents.  What are the stipulations of that statistic?   Under 18?  And if so, I still don't believe it for a second.  Sounds like someone trying to make us think that its really easy for parents to have control over that aspect of kids' lives.  I know that, at 33 years old, I always buy games when I am helping my mommy buy groceries...

Yes, actually, if you had bothered to read the link before making your condescending post, you would see that the study says PARENTS OF CHILDREN UNDER 18.

Condescending?  Did you write the article or something?  No, I did not read it, but i figured that since you had posted all the statistics right there on your post that we were free to make comments and assertions according to those stats.  Simmer down.

[Stepheno]

When I was younger,I had most of the main consoles at the time.And my parents were shocked by how violent the death scene in bezerk was.Nowadays on the rare occasion my 12-year old son comes over,its not really violent.Take Star strike on intellivision for an example.My parents were one again concerned about the destruction of earth.Later it got worse,I actually pooled the money toghether with my freinds to buy halloween,I was locked in my room playing it with freinds.Then they walked in and went Ape [explecitive].That was only how michael myers looked scary.And then I lost a life,and THEN they went INSANE.The dicapitation was too much for me according to what they said.They took the game and tucked it away for a few years,until i was a few years older,then I turnerd 13 and had an NES handy.

Next they took it out and let me play it.I ended up LAUGHING at how cheesy it was.I played wild gunman and it was more violent then that in my opinion (just without blood).I moved out in 1992.Then I dicovered Mortal kombat,and violence in video games was beggining to be a little more common after that,I played wolfenstein 3d,doom,mortal kombat games,and many more.I was working as an operator at Sega of america.And I made a good bit of cash and bought a 3do (as well as buy another for a freind 3 months later).Some games were violent,but i perferred the other consoles.Then another strike hit with violence.I bought the highly hyped playstation,and Doom.Its was as violent as anything id seen.

And since then,the landmark was set with violent video games.Today we have Grand theft auto,call of duty,resident evil,assasins creed etc. etc. etc..I can't stress how many children are playing games with more blood and gore than you can imagine.I think even with the rating system its out of control.Heck most video game stores dont even CARE when a 10 year old kid comes and buys a rated M game by themselves.I think violent video games dont offend as many people as they used to.So i figure,hey its just a game.

[scotland171]

Just saw on Google News a banner about 'majority of parents say video games are a positive part of their child's life'.    In general, I love statistics, and I enjoy talking about video games as a human activity, a business activity, and a cultural touchstone.  I was kinda looking forward to such a discussion when I saw the source of the headline.  The ESA - the Entertainment Software Association.

I agree with Dave as to be very skeptical.  This is just the renamed organization of the lobbying group that began after the whole Senate / Mortal Kombat issue in the 16 bit 90s, when Sega and Nintendo looked around and found how few companies came to their defense.  They are a lobbying group that does what is in their best interest.   That's the whole point of a lobbying group.  No reason they don't deserve one, and we all enjoy the things their members create.  Like any advocacy group though, they exist for a reason, and so the information they provide should be inspected before given credence.

That does not mean their information is wrong, but since they never communicate anything about their sampling methods, how they define terms like 'gamer', never show their questionnaire, and they obviously have a stake in the game to soften the image of gaming to be more family and female friendly, skeptical is the view to take.   These are fundamental issues in collecting statistics, and they are just keeping all that behind the curtain and giving us a fancy smoke and mirrors PDF.

The dominant image of a gamer is still a teenage boy inside his room,  escaping anything remotely healthy or athletic to devote hours to moving only their thumbs playing violent video games.  That seems to be the image they are still fighting.

This same lobbying group supported SOPA and PIPA, which is understandable, but notable, and that they are strong advocates of strengthening copyrights in the US.  According to this article
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/esa-mo ... 0-6180340/
the group also advocates for a version of the US's Digital Millenium Copyright Act for other nations.
None of these strong copyright protection laws are particularly popular, but this is the voice of content creators.  I remember Sonny Bono (of Sonny and Cher) who became a member of the US Congress and believed copyright should be forever.   I think that is basically the mindset here.

Maybe you agree with strong copyright laws, maybe you don't.  The point is that until this group discloses more about their numbers, there is no real reason to give them credence or headlines.

[Rev1]

This is really interesting article. I totally missed this when this was first posted. In case you are interested here is the newest one:

http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2014.pdf

Quite a few changes from the 2010 version.

The average age of gamers have dropped from 34 to 31.
The average age of the most frequent game purchaser went from 40 to 35.
The average # of years adult gamers have been gaming went from 12 to 16.
Gender went from 60/40 (M/F) to 52/48.
Parents are present 91% of the time vs. 93% of the time while their kids play video games.

there is a lot more but it is hard to find the questions that are exactly the same between the two articles. They are formatted different with different questions being chosen to be bold compared to the 2010 year.

Still, really interesting.