Average gamer is 37 years old!

The average gamer is 37 years old. I guess I don't find that too surprising (I'm 38), because my generation grew up with atari 2600, actual quarter game arcades, and the inception of Pac-Man, Mario, and the dawn of 3D gaming.

So, just for polling NBR, if you play games, how old are you?

Average gamer is 37 years old, still knows how to play Pac Man | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News

The Entertainment Software Association - Industry Facts

Below is a list of the top 10 entertainment software industry facts:

Consumers spent $25.1 billion on video games, hardware and accessories in 2010.
Purchases of digital content accounted for 24 percent of game sales in 2010, generating $5.9 billion in revenue.
Seventy-two percent of American households play computer or video games.
The average game player is 37 years old and has been playing games for 12 years.
The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 41 years old.
Forty-two percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (37 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (13 percent).
In 2011, 29 percent of Americans over the age of 50 play video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.
Fifty-five percent of gamers play games on their phones or handheld device.
Seventy-six percent of all games sold in 2010 were rated "E" for Everyone, "T" for Teen, or "E10+" for Everyone 10+. For more information on game ratings, please see Entertainment Software Rating Board.
Parents are present when games are purchased or rented 91 percent of the time.

 

I feel that NBR however consists mainly younger gamers. I find the women gaming facts interesting.

 

how did they gather the data? i dont believe theres a 42% female gamer base.

the avg age however is much more believable.

 

Guess I'm helping to pull the average up @ 43.

 

It would be nice to get details behind their findings. For female gamers, probably The Sims and WoW contribute a lot to that statistic. If they include browser / facebook games, I have zero confidence in their results then.

 

1967 makes me above average. i use video games to combat the onset of alzheimer's.

 

I wonder if that is Q brushing Picard's head. He looks so happy. That picture cracks me up!

I expect that they did include farmville, farmtown, and farmcity (wah?). I remember reading a GI with similar info on women gamers awhile back that included Internet and mobile device games. The ESA's numbers may even be a little low.

I would be interested to see amount of time spent gaming per week broken down by age groups. Just so I can figure out which type of loser I am.
Currently, I am rapidly approaching Veteran Young Guy status at the ripe age of 32.

 

Pretty sure they count Farmville and such as games, and those have a huge female player base.

 

49 here, and definitely agree with Pitabred...for better or worse...

 

Ha 20-24 is winning. Though I wish I were 25 already so my car insurance would drop already

 

The Rodster clan

 

LMAO

10 char hear me roar

 

^ Lol @ Tsunada Ba ba! You aged 54 I believe.

I'm 22 here....but everytime I went to gym casino or club those guard still blocks me and ask for my ID , they said I looks like 16-17.

 

Added +1 to the 35-39 crowd. I remember when I thought graphics couldn't get better than Kings Quest I.

 

20~24 for the bloody win !!!

 

LOL +1 FTW! I loved Kings Quest. Played through all of them with a friend of mine. Yes we were geeks back in 1980's too!

 

@the women stats thing

This is a prime example of how to lie with satistics. Think about it, you're limiting males to anyone below the age of 18. For women you have the whole of the population who aren't in their teens, including generation X which would contribute a lot to the numbers. The you also have to bear in mind that out of the under 18 males, you can assume that anyone under about 8-10 wouldn't feature in these statistics. That gives you a range of ten years max for males compared to a range of however long women live for minus 17 years. QED.

As to what the word "gamer" means, I would take it to at least mean somthing above flash based broswer games. Although I wouldn't call console users "gamers" per se, they definitely do count as playing computer games. For me, the word gamer would imply a certain amount of dedication, which I would say consoles would lack as they occupy the casual market.

 

Wizardry 1 - monochrome graphics

Star Wars 1 - opening night attended first showing
(ancient)

 

i love the definition of the guy above me

but ya they likely include flash games to to obtain these statistic

 

I'm surprised that the 16-19 demographic is that small.

I have to admit though, I haven't been playing a lot of games recently. I was in my "gamer" stage back when I was 14 to 16. Now I play a little combat training on Blacks Ops just to waste time when I'm idle. I still love RTS games though (huge fan of CnC Generals series, and Axis and Allies 2004 version).

 

At that age I was playing 4 sports for my high-school and busy chasing tail No time for video games.

Not sure how the kids are these days but maybe most are busy with the same.

 

Eh, I'm not a guy who cares much about sports. I was on the Robotics and Academic Challenge teams during my later high school years, and I don't care too much for blondes (what's up with all the blonde girls in the Carolinas?); Now I am focusing on my college education, I have a beautiful girl who's in love with me (and vice versa), and I've simply lost any interest in the games I use to play (Battlefield BC2 and 3 are the only games that added something new to the FPS field in years...).

 

i am not surprised by the result of this post most of the 16-19 ethier don't have the money to invest in laptop and games so they won't be around

anyway i'm among those who try to save the face for that branche lol

 

To be honest, I'm mostly a "console tard". I only use PCs for RTS games. For FPS I prefer the Xbox 360 (I think I'll go back to PC, but use the 360 controller instead of mouse/keyboard)

 

I can't imagine myself playing a FPS with a console controller ... HOW DO U DO IT !!!! ... I find the mouse/keyboard combo is much more effective ... when I play with my friends Pro Evolution soccer which technically quite easy with the controller I prefer to use the keyboard ... I even set keys for analog sticks on the controller and they always find it strange ... so maybe I guess it is just me

 

Sorry for the off topic,but
+1 to that.. I have never gotten how someone can effectively play a fps with a controller...??!!
I just dont get how it is even possible to aim with thumb-sticks..! Is there some sort of auto-aim/aim-helping on consoles..? I tried playing crysis2 yesterday with the 360 controller and i just couldn't do it!
Personally, i'm in awe of anyone who can play a fast paced fps with a controller effectively..

Anyway back on topic.. I just added one to the 20-24 but hope to be gaming long enough to come back and add +1 to the 60+ someday..

 

Well my first computer was an Acorn Electron and the wife insists i'm far too old to be playing games.............

 

51 here and old enough to know that eye-candy and bling-bling alone, does not always equal a good game. Some of the best games ever, are 2-d isomectric, even turn-based !

Back in the day, would spend hours at the arcade playing Missile Defense or Star Gate.................on one quarter !

 

32 here, but I am a casual one, I was a "gamer" with my C64, but geez that was 20 years ago!! LOL...

I guess for FIFA,and soccer games generally, I will play as long as I can...

 

yes there are auto aims on almost every consol game out there

 

Heroes of Might & Magic 3 (still my top 3 of all time)

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I'm surprised at the poll figures. I thought the crowd would be much older on these boards. My first game was Mario 1 for regular Nintendo (I'm 27)

I praise the heavens that MMORPG's weren't invented during my childhood!

 

Average gamer: 37; but average purchaser 41? Guess the dads buying games for kids have skewed the statitics

And I've already entered the section of 30!! ... surely times goes on.

The age statistic of NBR looks nicely distributed

 

I can agree, though it feels odd that there aren't a lot of people in my demographic. I believe most of the 16-19 year olds are those guys creating an account solely to post in the "What Notebook Should I Buy?" Section >.<

 

I'm here, I'm 17!

 

Woot! 18 here.

I still see a myriad of them asking us for college laptops, then leaving NBR for good. Meh.

 

I'm on the end of the scale that saw the dawn of home computing, and video games. Just turned 44 a few months ago.

There was another forum that I used to be a member of; something like 2 old 2 kwit (quit), but I can't find it anymore. Was for us older gamers. Maybe it's gone...