BBC study reveals the facts about gamers

by Jennie Lees { Nov 30th 2005 at 12:00PM }

Gaming as a niche hobby, only enjoyed by a few teenagers in dark seclusion? Not so, says the BBC, in a report that investigates the demographic of British gamers. Defining a "gamer" quite loosely—"someone who has played video games in the last six months on any platform, including interactive TV"—the report has found that:

Most people play games. (59% of 6-65 year olds)
All kids play games. (100% of 6-10 year olds)
The average age of all gamers is 28.
Older gamers outnumber non-gamers. (51% of 31-50 year olds play games.)
Gender gap? What gender gap? (48% of gamers are female.)
Consoles pwn PCs. (21.4 million console gamers versus 19.9m PC gamers.)
People actually play interactive TV games. (8.1 million of them.)
Puzzles and quizzes are the most popular game type. (63% of gamers love them.)

These results show an increasingly diverse demographic and yet they tell us very little since the definition of "gamer" is so broad. Gaming is very definitely a mainstream pastime, according to the statistics gathered, enjoyed regularly and in company—the BBC may well be afraid that it is usurping the place of TV.

However, giving a casual gamer who plays one game once in six months and a hard-core gamer who is glued to the PC twelve hours a day equal weighting may be fallacious, and it would be interesting to see the results specific to "gamers that other gamers call gamers" and "gamers who only realised they were gamers once they took the survey".

[via Ludology]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Badison @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

Interesting stats. 100% of 6 - 10 yr olds? If that is at all accurate and the trend is present in some other industralized nations, then this could mean even more explosive growth for the industry if people stay hooked over the years (too bad they dont have standard error or confidence intervals or a break down by frequency of play).

Tin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

I say "BS" on the female gamer thing. Maybe they are talking about board games. Of all the girls I know maybe 1 or 2 of them play video games. Even then, they don't play much at all.

Tin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

Plus, of all the games I've played on Xbox live, I heard a girl only 1 time.

Tin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

Plus, of all the games I've played on Xbox live, I heard a girl only 1 time.

MisleadingStatistics @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

Talk is cheap. Stats are even cheaper.

If seeing a 100% result on a consumer survey doesn't erode its credibility, I don't know what will.

jl @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

Remember: 86.7536986 % of all statistics are made up

Wai_TungLeung @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

I dunno, it doesn't seem too far off seeing how from personal observations there's quite a few girls who do a bit of casual gaming whether on a console or on their mobile. I assume you live in the UK Tin?

jl @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

The BBC tend to run pretty reliable surveys. Tin, perhaps you haven't heard any female gamers because a) they're all playing custom games or b) they unplug their microphones to avoid abuse? A lot of women play casual downloadable games and my dear mother is addicted to Myst. Online gamers aren't all gamers.

Ericka S @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

Yes, we female gamers are out there. Hell, most of the women I know play video games at least occasionally, and some of my best female friends are "hardcore gamers". My *grandmother* plays RPGs on her Playstation emulator every day, and she's 83! Personally, I'm an avid RPG and fighter fan, though I enjoy playing most types of games. However, the only online games I play are ones that don't require monthly fees (like Adventure Quest and the text-based Aardwolf).

WedgeTalon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

Tin, you're also only getting a sampling from a miniscule 8% of the people polled (less than that really, as I'm certain that the full 8% don't all play on live). "8% Multi-player online", which also, by itself, is an interesting statistic.... Could it be that all of this online play talk (*cough*xboxlive*cough*) that we hear about so much isn't as popular as people want you to believe?

Tin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

I'm not using Xbox Live as my main example. I'm saying this because I work with a lot of young married couples and teenagers (well over 500) on a weekly basis. I know these people. The females, in general, don't play video games.

Perhaps some of them play Bejeweled or the likes once in a while.

Maybe this survey has a very very broad definition of gamers like "Have you ever played or seen or thought about a video game?"..."Are you a female?".

I'd like to see how they did the survey.

I don't live in the UK. I live in Orlando, FL.

I'm not mad. It's just like saying that 50% of people listen to classical music. It's a gray area if they don't ask when and how often. I mean, yes, I listen to classical when I'm in an elevator. So put my name on the list.

Anyway, enough about all this.

jl @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

Tin, almost every woman I know has played a video game in the last 6 months -- including casual games and interactive TV -- that's the survey's definition. Mobile gaming is a lot bigger in the UK than in the US too, I think.

NintendoGirl4Life @ Dec 18th 2005 9:38PM

I don't think that survey is very accurate. Sure, the statistics may be correct, but their definition of "gamer" is too broad. How many girls have played Halo when hanging out with their male friends? A lot! But playing Halo once at a friend's house doesn't make you a gamer, at least not by my definition. I'd be very interested in seeing statistics about hard-core gamers. To introduce myself, I am one of the rare hard-core female gamers. I have NES, SNES, N64, GCN, Gameboy, GBC, GBA, and DS. I play video games nearly every day. Once I played for about 6 hours straight. I have a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine. I have several video game posters hanging on my wall. I made Mario and Luigi salt and pepper shakers in pottery class. Never in my life have I met another girl who's that obsessed with video games, and I sure don't know any 31-50 year olds who are. Clearly if they made their definition of "gamer" less broad (maybe someone who owns a console and has played it in the last week or two?), the statistics would be very different indeed. And what's with this "all kids play games" thing? That right there is a lie. I don't care what the statistics are on, you will NEVER see 100% unless it's physically impossible to do something. There is an exception to every rule. After all, what about Amish kids?