Women make majority of casual gamers

12 Comments by Zack Stern Sep 29th 2006 6:40PM
Filed under: Culture, Business

eMarketer covers two recent studies, saying that casual games make up the most popular genre, and women are the majority of casual gamers. According to a May, 2006 study by AOL, 29% of respondents said that casual games were their favorite genre, with strategy games rating a distant second place at 17%. A survey just released by PopCap says that 76% of casual gamers are female, and 47% are 50-and-older.

But marketers can make numbers mean anything; another way to look at the initial survey is to say that 70% of respondents had a favorite other than casual games. (1% said they weren't sure of a favorite.)

However you interpret these surveys, we like the idea of games reaching a more diverse audience. Only after that happens can games be as culturally significant as books and movies.

[Via: Adrants]

Tags: casual games, CasualGames, popcap, survey, woman, women

Source

(Page 1) Reader Comments

Katie: Sep 29th 2006; 6:44PM

I'm honestly not surprised....bring on mario!

http://genericworld1981.blogspot.com/

Eric Von Shpeel: Sep 29th 2006; 6:51PM

and midgets make up a small percent of the population

LordMinogue: Sep 29th 2006; 6:53PM

Its hard to tell between a girl and a sexually confused pre-teen on LIVE. Still, I know several girls who are avid gamers.

cringer8: Sep 29th 2006; 7:40PM

Books aren't culturally significant. What a niche market.

I take these surveys to mean that girls are more popular than guys and games are only casual if they're popular. Numbers confuse me.

Anonymous: Sep 29th 2006; 7:54PM

It just means more females participated than males, nothing more, and one shouldn't take it seriously.

Andre: Sep 29th 2006; 8:21PM

Usually the hot ones dont play much... they are busy doing something else

epobirs: Sep 29th 2006; 9:24PM

Unless cloning or some other method has become popular without catching my notice, women make ALL gamers, casual or otherwise. Men help a bit but really, it isn't like they're in it for anything other than the immediate payoff.

Lam007: Sep 29th 2006; 10:01PM

Casual games can be fun. Games will ultimately become the interactive media to replace TV. Think about watching CSI, but actually solving the case on your own by controlling events.

Steve Roger: Sep 29th 2006; 11:02PM

Oh yes, and a recent survey concluded that men have penises.

emceay: Sep 29th 2006; 11:03PM

"Usually the hot ones dont play much... they are busy doing something else"
Like bobbin that knob on the guy not cooped up in his room.

Aljaud: Sep 30th 2006; 4:08AM

seriously, Most of the men probably just didnt do the survey, i know i've skipped hundreds of surveys i was asked to do..this proves nothing except mabye girls do surveys :O

atomicpondula: Sep 30th 2006; 6:09AM

very, very old news. Dunno why "emarketer" bothered, all that had to do was read gamasutra or something. This has been known for at least 2 years.

In other news, apparently we need water to survive!

System 3 talk about Ferrari Challenge DLC, demo PixelJunk Eden trophy and YouTube support detailed Have another look at Killzone 2's multiplayer mode	Breakfast Topic: WoW-related merchandise and spin-offs Deleting toons to make room for Wrath The Art of War(craft): Dreaming about Death Knight PvP
FaceBreaker demo breaks faces next Thur. It's an NCAA Football 09 Live Weekend Next week, Ticket to Ride expands into Europe	Wii Warm Up: Best kitten in a game? Oh man, I am so Wii Fit right now, I have no idea what's going on The VC Advantage: The men who would be Kings
Guys, Goosebumps is coming to the DS, too Rhythm Heaven looks heavenly The DS Life: While My Guitar Grip Gently Weeps	Ad: PSP's next big game, Phantasy Star Portable Xbox Japan's most popular game, Idolmaster, moves to PSP European video download service 'Go!View' now live
Sins of a a Solar Empire 1.1 beta to begin later today Get Still Alive now with the free Portal Flash Version map pack E3 08: Red Faction: Guerrilla trailer breaks through

Breaking News »