Seventy-two Percent of Households in US are Gaming

The Entertainment Software association dropped some pretty major stats from a recent research initiative they did. Now remember, they’re a total pro-gaming community so the extrapolation of the data might be slightly over-positive. the ESA

According to their data 72% of US households (which total around 120 million) play games. More interestingly, 82% of gamers are adults according to the same research.

The report, 2011 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry, also found 42 percent of gamers are women and that women age 18 or older represent more than one third of the game-playing population. In addition, purchases of digital full games, digital add-on content, mobile apps, subscriptions and social network gaming accounted for 24 percent of game sales in 2010, generating $5.9 billion in revenue.

Here are some numbers that appear to be amazingly skewed in the positive. Like I said, a decidedly pro-gaming group commissioned a study about gaming. On top of that, it almost seems like the 1,200 households polled, were taken from the ESA member list.

The survey also found that parents remain highly involved in their children’s game play and see several benefits of entertainment software. Forty-five percent of parents report playing computer and video games with their children at least weekly and nine out of ten parents pay attention to the content of the games their children play. In addition, 68 percent of parents believe that game play provides mental stimulation or education, 57 percent believe games encourage their family to spend time together, and 54 percent believe that game play helps their children connect with their friends.

Other findings of the survey include:

The average game player is 37 years old, while the average game purchaser is 41 years old;
Sixty-five percent of gamers play games with other gamers in person;
More than half (55 percent) of gamers play games on their phones or handheld devices;
Eighty-six percent of parents are aware of the Entertainment Software Rating Board rating system, and 98 percent of these parents are confident in the accuracy of the ratings;
Parents are present when games are purchased or rented 91 percent of the time; and
Consumers spent $25.1 billion on game content, hardware and accessories in 2010.

The research for the 2011 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry was conducted by Ipsos MediaCT and is the most in-depth and targeted survey of its kind, gathering data from almost 1,200 nationally representative households that have been identified as owning either or both a video game console or a personal computer used to run entertainment software.

Those numbers are so decidedly positive that, while reporting them, I have problems putting faith in them. Without a real way to check them or compare them to anything else I suggest you all read them again through a very large and translucent grain of salt.