Who Really Plays Video Games?
By Anna Johnson on August 5th, 2008Forget the stereotype of the teenage male video gamer. Sure, he exists… but over half of all video gamers are adult, and many of them are women.
eMarketer reports that just over half of casual gamers are women. And according to the Casual Games Association’s “Market Report 2007″ nearly 75 percent of casual gamers who pay for their games are female.
Nintendo’s release of the Wii console has also increased the audience for video games, particularly among women, with over 10 million Wii consoles sold so far. Meanwhile, an estimated 28 percent of the 70 million owners of Nintendo’s DS handheld game player are female.
Most recently, a July 2008 study by Ipsos-MediaCT sponsored by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) found that 25 percent of U.S. video gamers were female and one-third of all game players were women aged 18 and older. Only 18 percent were boys ages 17 and younger.
Source: eMarketer, “Changing Video Gamer Demographics”, eMarketer, July 25, 2008
