ESA has published their latest Essential Facts for 2014. This annual report reveals what we know about industry demographics and trends year after year in the US, the biggest market for games. This year reveals one very interesting insight; most Americans are gamers now, and most gamers have consoles.
Who knew? It seems the hype for gaming on mobile has been seriously overestimated. Even as smartphone gaming increased 22 % and tablet 37 % year on year, 51 % of US households own a console, two on average. 59 % of the population overall are actually gamers. Among US residents who own devices, 68 % game with consoles, 53 % on smartphones and 41 % on wireless devices.
Still, we won’t deny that mobile gaming has had an impact, with a majority share of the market by genre at 30 %, and an increase in popularity by 55 % year on year
Other notable data we’ll outline in brief here:
- average age of a gamer is getting older at 31
- women have expanded in the demographics, with women over 18 play more games than boys 18 years old and below
- 62 % of gamers play with others, local and online
Finally, don’t believe the outlier headlines of bad incidents involving irresponsible parents and gaming. 95 % of parents pay attention to the games their kids play. 85 % of parents know the ESRB, and 88 % believe rating systems are useful.
Update: As this story is old, please refer to the latest 2019 facts from the ESA
