Just when you thought that the debate on video games, screen time, and mobile devices’ influence on children couldn’t reach another level, research has shown that the average US gamer is much older.
According to data collated by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the average age of the American gamer can’t be classified as children or teenagers. With 33 years on the clock, these gamers are well into adulthood.
They are also not a small population, since adults with gaming as a hobby make up at least 65 percent of American adults.
Spending Has Reached an All New High
And that’s not all. They are also spending that adult-earned money on these games.
Spending on gaming-related purchases has increased by 85 percent from 2015, which is also 20 percent more than where it was a year ago. The amount spent on gaming reaches about $43.4 billion.
The most intriguing part? It’s not even all on hardware.
Content Purchases Rule the Market
According to the research, most of the multi-billion-dollar expenditure came from content purchases as opposed to gaming hardware. This is a startling finding, as dedicated adult gamers are known to spend thousands of dollars each on their gaming equipment annually.
This is due to digital downloads, or pay-to-play games. Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Red Dead Redemption II are considered some of the prime names in this category.
Smartphones are the Preferred Gaming Devices Now
Hardware spending has declined in favor of mobile devices. Mobile devices which serve as the prime platform for some of the top games with the highest revenues.
60 percent of gamers are using their smartphones to quench their thirst for gaming. Even with half of them playing on their consoles and PCs, this still makes for many mobile gamers. This becomes especially significant when you notice that thisis the segment which has given way to software spending by a large margin.
Men and Women Like Different Games
The research noted that out of the group that plays games on smartphones, most of the gamers are women.
Women aged 18 to 34 are most interested in playing games on their smartphones, with their interest in titles such as Candy Crush, Tomb Raider and Assassin’s Creed. Whereas, men the same age favor playing games on their consoles, with popular titles such as God of War and Fortnite, among others.
Gaming Doesn’t Make You a Social Recluse
The research showed that contrary to popular opinion, being interested in gaming doesn’t make you a hermit. The rise of MMORPG games and social gaming in general, games can help people to connect and create new friends.
As for the future of gaming: Apple and Google are soon launching their own gaming related subscription and streaming service, respectively. The future of gaming is becoming more sophisticated.
Decentralized Gaming
The cryptocurrency sector has had a variety of popular crypto-oriented games such as Cryptokitties, Spells of Genesis, Beyond the Void, Privateers Life, Endless Dice, EOS Knights, Gods Unchained, and more.
One of the latest initiatives is that of Satoshi’s Treasure, the cryptographic treasure hunt for $1 million in bitcoin.
Yet, the cryptocurrency gaming sector has quite a bit of ways to go, it is still in in the early stages. Adoption is still slow as creators seek to find more ways to achieve the higher quality that meets current gaming standards while integrating principles of Web3 in decentralization, transparency, and provable scarce in-game digital assets.
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