According to research by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and YouGov, the number of Americans who play video games for at least one hour per week is more than 190 million. 53% of people polled during the research identified as male, 46% as female, and 1% as nonbinary or preferred not to say.
In terms of age, gaming appears to appeal across generations. The average age for gamers is now 36. However, although people of this age belong to the Millennial generation, younger people from Gen Alpha and Gen Z are still more likely to play video games.
The recent research figures represented ESA’s first inclusion of Gen Alpha in its statistics. The figures revealed that members of this generation (aged 5-10) were mostly likely to play games weekly. This is also the generation that has most embraced mobile gaming, with 73% of Gen Alpha gamers playing games using a mobile device.
Gen Z gamers also tend towards mobile gaming. 69% of them use a mobile device to play. These figures are part of the overall growth in mobile gaming. The number of people exclusively using a mobile device to play has risen from 12% to 31%, while 78% of gamers play mobile games at some point compared to 64% previously.
You can see another upward gaming trend in social gaming. These games have cross-generational popularity as they promote the social aspect of gaming across a range of content, including sweepstakes games, community games like Bejewelled, and MMORPG games like World of Warcraft.
The social gaming market is currently valued at $27.16 billion. This value is expected to increase at a CAGR of 16.01%, reaching nearly $76.83 billion by 2029. The trend for social games is set to continue if research by Deloitte is anything to go by. According to the research, 40% of Millennials and Gen Z socialize more when playing video games than in the real world.
As these generations grow older, figures suggest that their love of gaming will continue. Remember that average gamer who is 36 years old we mentioned earlier? The ESA research that identified this average player also provided evidence that they have been playing for seventeen years. This suggests that players take their love of gaming with them as they age.
In the coming years, this will likely lead to an increase in the number of older people gaming. The number of people in the Silent Generation, aged 78 and over, who enjoy gaming is already more than you might think. The ESA poll reveals that around 1 in 3 people in this generation play video games for an hour or more per week.
These figures show that gaming already crosses generations. As the major gamers of the Millennial generation, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, grow older, they will take their passion for gaming with them, and more older people will spend longer periods of time playing video games.
