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