NPD: Girls increasingly becoming gamers

by Alexander Sliwinski on Sep 25th 2008 7:00PM

NPD's new study, Girl Power: Understanding This Important Consumer Segment, finds that girls between 2 and 14 years old are increasingly ~~wasting~~ spending their time gaming. The gaming disease apparently strikes between ages 6 and 8 and finally metastasizes in the brain between 9 and 12, when girls begin "migrating to computer and video games, especially virtual world online games."

NPD's industry analyst, Anita Frazier, says that 50% of girls between 2 and 14 years old still play with "traditional" items like "dolls, plush, and arts & crafts" in this digital age. She notes that the growth in use of social networking and virtual world sites by women should be recognized by manufacturers who, you know, want money from the ladies.

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Tags: female-gamers, girl-gamers, npd, study, women-gamers

Reader Comments (53)

@khan,

No, I don't think my opinion defines reality. As a matter of fact if you had payed attention to my response, you would have noticed I said to each his own.

You start of by saying "between my Wii and DS". We aren't talking about the DS, which I own as well and look forward to several games for said platform. We are specifically talking about the Wii which IMO is a joke from a gaming standpoint. I've yet to play a Wii game that made me A) warrant the purchase of one or B) utilized the controller in a way that made me go "wow" that's cool.

Maybe a future Mario or Zelda game will change my mind, as I grew up playing Nintendo consoles. However, that's just the thing, I grew up and Nintendo didn't.

If not having heavy hitting titles and awesome multi-platform games doesn't bother you, and your content with Mega Man 9 (which I'll buy on my 360) Warioland, Bomberman and the few other games you mentioned than hey, more power to you, I'm not trippin. I'm just saying for me, that's not cutting it. When your handheld has better games now and coming in the future then for me, that's not cutting it.

Again, to each his own.

Reply

@khan,

One other thing I forgot to address from your statement.

Quote: "Sure it doesn't have the heavy hitter exclusives like the other guys do, or the sweet multiplat titles, but to argue that it has nothing is preposterous, unless you're one of those people who think their opinion defines reality"

I would like to draw particular attention to the part where you say that to say it has nothing is preposterous.

Really?, how is that?

Look, everyone has opinions on just about everything. This is why for example, I don't pay attention to reviews and rely on my own research and word of mouth from gamers that I know and trust. With that being said, I would argue that it is you who would be guilty of your own words if your saying that just because I think that it doesn't have anything worth playing that it's a preposterous notion or that anyone who doesn't agree with you (or Nintendo fanboys) thinks that their opinion defines reality.

My opinion does define my reality, and in my reality the Wii sucks. Period. Again, maybe in the future they will have something for me but judging by E3, I may be waiting a while. Sure, my wife and son like it and it's cool to pop in Wii sports for a spin when company comes over, but for me, $250 to play Wii sports ain't happening. The games you listed don't appeal to me nor do they appeal to millions of pissed off gamers who want to dust of their Wii's and actually play them for a change.

I'm not saying that I'm all about shooting stuff and blood, rather that's far from the case. I play and own something from just about every genre you can name with the exception of sports games (hate sports games)so please don't get it twisted on that front.

I'm not down with the Wii, but that's just me. However by you telling me that because I think it has no games worth buying the system for is preposterous or I'm trying to define reality, isn't that an example of the pot calling the kettle black?