That’s a pretty high number, right? The ESA recently completed a study called ‘Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry 2009’ that looked at the demographics of those playing video games and how they’ve changed over the years. The 68% number in the title is a 3% jump from last year, but a decent chunk of those people are only gaming on their computer — only 42% of homes have an actual console. That’s still impressive, but I’m assuming this is counting someone who plays solitare at work as a ‘gamer’.
Other interesting data include the average age of game players (35), that 45% of all games sold are rated E, and that the length of time the average adult has been playing video games is down from last year, suggesting that more and more newcomers are picking up controllers. Again, it’s hard to know exactly what these numbers mean, since the critera on what constitues a ‘computer game’ isn’t clear, but at the very least you can infer that casual gaming is still a huge market and won’t be going away any time soon.
