Report States 67% of Americans Play Video Games, 12 Hours Per Week on Average

percentage of gamers in the US

It’s no big deal these days when people say they play video games, but whatever number you’re thinking of, it’s higher than that. Don’t believe me? Well, according to research from EEDAR, over 67 percent of Americans play video games! This number means a total of 211.2 million people in the US are considered gamers.

In the “Gamer Segmentation Report” post, over half of these 67 percent play across multiple platforms, and the most popular platform so far is mobile, which should surprise no one. Check out the condensed, easy-to-read version of the report courtesy of Reset Era user Nirolak.

  • 67% of Americans age 2 and up play games. This is a total of 211.2 million game playing Americans.
  • 90% play on mobile, 52% on PC, and 43% on console. These are percentages of the 67% of Americans playing games, not of the total US population.
  • To be clear, PC includes stuff like Facebook or browser gaming.
  • Handhelds are down to 9%, but I think NPD counts the Switch as a console, so I’m not sure how much longer that stat will be relevant.
  • 59% of gamers play on both mobile and (PC and/or console).
  • 41% of gamers play on only one device type (mobile, console, or PC).
  • For people who play games, it tends to take up 16% of their leisure time, which turns out to 12 hours a week on average.
  • For comparison, internet browsing is 18%, listening to music is 15%, and social media is 13%.
  • Active gamers (the group studied) were counted as anyone who played games within the month of June 2018, were age 2 or higher, and had access to one of the devices mentioned (mobile, PC, or console).

NPD Group (which owns EEDAR) analyst Mat Piscatella also shared a few more details regarding the report such as: “mobile” also includes tablets, the Nintendo Switch is considered a console (as it should be), the 67 percent mentioned is derived from the 211 million gamers listed. Lastly, “PC gaming” in the report includes anything played on PC.

Surprised by the results? Or not really? Personally, given how easy it is to find something to play games on, it’s no surprise that the amount of people playing games are higher than in years past, and I don’t see it dropping anytime soon.

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spideynut71
spideynut71
5 years ago

“67% of Americans age 2 and up play games” and
“Active gamers (the group studied) were counted as anyone who played games within the month of June 2018, were age 2 or higher, and had access to one of the devices mentioned”

That’s all you need to read to know the validity and accuracy is sketchy at best. How the hell do you include toddlers in your data? Sure, you can ask those polled if they have children, how many, and if they play games, but there’s no way you could get an accurate figure for their time spent gaming. Also, they only sampled the month of June? That’s plain stupid.

J.j. Barrington
J.j. Barrington
5 years ago

“Playing games” and “being a gamer” are not the same thing.

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