investiGaming is a publication of the Serious Game Design group in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University, 2007-2009
This gateway is partially supported by grant 0631771 from the National Science Foundation.
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Player DemographicsinvestiGaming › Tags › Player Demographics
Selected highlights from the PLAYER DEMOGRAPHICS tag (scroll down to see the full list of entries with this tag, including links to the entries)
Gaming and Sociality
• About two-thirds of female gamers are playing with a romantic partner, while this is the case for less than one-fifth of male gamers. Female MMO players least likely to be playing with a romantic partner are those older than 35 (Yee, 2008).
• Female gamers are about twice as likely to be playing with someone else playing in the same room with them than male gamers (see Figure 2). Men are more likely to be playing alone (Yee, 2008).
• Playing an MMO as part of a romantic relationship also helps female players justify long hours spent playing; she is nurturing her romantic relationship as well as (presumably) having fun. Thus, these male relations legitimate both their initial entry and ongoing presence in an MMO (Yee, 2008).
• 65% of game-playing teens play with other people who are in the room with them (Lenhart, 2008).
• 47% of teens play online games with people they know in their offline lives (Lenhart, 2008).
• Teens who have civic gaming experiences, such as helping or guiding other players, organizing or managing guilds, playing games that simulate government processes, or playing games that deal with social or moral issues, report much higher levels of civic and political engagement than teens who do not have these kinds of experiences (Kahne, 2008).
• Teens who play games socially (a majority of teens) are more likely to be civically and politically engaged than teens who play games primarily alone (Kahne, 2008).
• Game playing was an increasingly social activity (Osborne, 2008).
Game Play Statistics
• The large majority of MMO players are male (85.4%). 44% of male players are age 22 or younger, compared with 20% of female players (Yee, 2008).
• 38% of game players are women (ESA, 2008).
• Women ages 18+ make up 30% of the game-playing population (ESA, 2008).
• Boys ages 17 or younger make up 23% of the game-playing population (ESA, 2008).
• The average adult woman plays games 7.4 hours per week (ESA, 2008).
• The average adult man plays 7.6 hours per week (ESA, 2008).
• The gender/time gap of the game-playing population has been decreasing since 2003 (ESA, 2008).
• 40% of all gamers are women (Anonymous, 2008).
• 55% of men and 50% of women play video games (Lenhart, 2008).
• Most hard-core players of EverQuest II were female (Osborne, 2008).
• Women were a key consumer group for mass market entertainment (Krotoski, 2004).
• Women made up 39%, 36.8% and 65.9% respectively of gamers in the U.S., Japan, and Korea (Krotoski, 2004).
• They were only 25% of gamers in Western Europe (Krotoski, 2004).
• The average age of female gamers, 30-35 years, was older than that of male gamers (Krotoski, 2004).
• Women had less time to play but represented a potential €14 billion of disposable income (Krotoski, 2004).
Casual Games
• 76% of PopCap players are female (PopCap, 2006).
• 26% of women under 40 play casual games while 36% of men under 40 play casual games (Popcap, 2006).
• 61% of men have been playing games for 5+ years, while only 46% of women have been playing for that long (Popcap, 2006).
• 60% of all female casual gamers say they play on a daily basis, compared to 44% of men (Popcap, 2006).
• Women play casual games for more hours per week than men do (Popcap, 2006).
• Women play casual games for longer stretches of time than men do (Popcap, 2006).
Gamer Interests
• All gamers, male and female, liked four kinds of fun: the fun of mastery, curiosity, better thinking or behavior, and socializing with friends (Lazzaro, 2008).
• The top 20 best-selling games in 2005 still use four basic scenarios (fighting, war-strategy, sports, and racing) (Lazzaro, 2008).
• Women were not looking for an “easier time” or games for women (Lazzaro, 2008).
• Both genders liked a challenge but women dislike violence (Lazzaro, 2008).
• SGN games attract mostly males who are slightly younger than the average game-playing population (Bret, 2008).
• Zynga games attract more men than women and 50% of their audience falls within the 22-25 age bracket (Bret, 2008).
• Blake Commagere’s Monsters have a fairly even male-female audience with 50% of this audience within the 22-25 age bracket (Bret, 2008).
• PC games were more likely than consoles to contain features that appeal to girls (Glaubke, 2001).
Males vs. Females
• Because female players are targets of verbal harassment, flirtation, surveillance, and endless efforts to determine their real gender and age, they must be much more conscientious and vigilant about revealing their real identities and contact information (Yee, 2008).
• Male players score higher in the Advancement, Mechanics, and Competition motivations, while female players score higher in the Relationship and Customization motivations. There were very small or no gender differences in the other 5 motivations - Socializing, Teamwork, Discovery, Role-Play, and Escapism (Yee, 2008).
• Men were more likely to play to win, whereas women were more likely to play for social reasons (Osborne, 2008).
Video Game Characters
• Player-controlled characters are usually male, and even nonhumans outnumbered female characters (Kaiser, 2002).
• Female characters were severely underrepresented in video games, accounting for only 16% of all characters (Glaubke, 2001).
• Male characters were most likely to be portrayed as competitors (47%), while female characters were most likely to be portrayed as props or bystanders (50%) (Glaubke, 2001).
• Male and female character roles and behaviors were frequently stereotyped, with males more likely to engage in physical aggression and females more likely to scream, wear
• revealing clothing and be nurturing (Glaubke, 2001).
Aleks Krotoski (2004)
Synopsis:
Considers opportunities and challenges facing the industry in appealing to the female gamer.
Keywords:
report, United Kingdom, player demographics, sexuality, violence,
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Outlines the results of the ESA’s new survey of consumer demographics.
Keywords:
media-press, industry, player demographics, survey
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Briefly lists the player demographics of the top three game developers on Facebook.
Keywords:
blog, player demographics, casual games
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Outlines the demographics of women gamers and analyzes how much time is spent playing games.
Keywords:
industry, report, player demographics, survey,
Full Text: No | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Outlines the demographics of women gamers and analyzes how much time is spent playing games.
Keywords:
industry, report, player demographics, game industry
Full Text: No | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Examines the top-selling video games for each of the seven different game systems and identifies some of the unhealthy social messages that video games may be sending to young players about violence, gender and race.
Keywords:
survey, report, children, player demographics, violence, ethnicity, avatars, what women want
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
A questionnaire study was undertaken with 387 adolescents (12-16 years of age) to establish the time spent playing computer games, who they first started playing with, the reasons why they first started and why they play now and negative consequences of play.
Keywords:
journal, academia, high school, United Kingdom, player demographics
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Outlines the demographics of women gamers and analyzes how much time is spent playing games.
Keywords:
industry, survey, player demographics, game industry
Full Text: No | Abstract: Yes
Synopsis:
A phone survey of 1,102 young persons in the United States aged 12 to 17 conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project in order to explore the link between video games and civic engagement.
Keywords:
survey, report, high school, player demographics, game genres, digital divide, parents and gaming , gaming social context, co play, family dynamics, civic engagement, learning, Internet use
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
A field study of 30 adults observed for a composite total of 45 hours playing favorite games, including video recordings of what players said and did and verbal and non-verbal emotional cues during play.
Keywords:
book, chapter, what women want, what men want, case study, gaming culture, gaming social context, gender inclusive, player types, motivations, player demographics
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
2,054 adults ages 18 and older, including 500 cell phone users were surveyed about their video game play.
Keywords:
academia, report, survey, adults older, adults younger, player demographics
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Telephone interviews of 1102 12- to 17-year-olds and their parents in were analyzed in order to determine which teens are playing games, the games and equipment they are using, the social context of their play, and the role of parents and parental monitoring regarding games.
Keywords:
academia, survey, report, high school, civic engagement, gaming culture, game genres, player demographics, gaming social context, parents and gaming
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Examines gender differences in more than 2,400 EverQuest II players, using survey and in-game data from Sony Online Entertainment.
Keywords:
academia, industry, survey, play data, media-press, player demographics, genre MMO, gaming social context, motivations, sexuality
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
PopCap Games survey of 1,202 US and UK internet users who play social games at least once a week
Keywords:
industry, genre_casual, co_play,casual games
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes
Synopsis:
Survey of 2,100 respondents from among PopCap’s customer base about when, where and why they turn to Casual Games.
Keywords:
casual games, motivations, player demographics
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
A fact sheet that focuses on video games in relation to children and health.
Keywords:
academia, report, survey, children, player demographics, violence, internet use, ethnicity
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Online surveys were conducted with30,000 online MMO players over a three year period to explore player demographics, motivations, and derived experiences.
Keywords:
journal, survey, MMO, player demographics, motivations,
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Multiple Surveys with data from 2,000 to 4,000 MMO players are combined with in-game observation to study various hypotheses about the dynamics of gender, play, and relationships in MMOs.
Keywords:
book, chapter, survey, player demographics, MMO, player types, what women want, what men want, co play, gaming social context
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes