Who plays games in America? 27/06/2024
It's not just "gamers", alright?
ESA’s Essential Facts explain why American players enjoy games
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD offers spooky fun in this week’s releases
Conan O’Brien reeling off fake Pokemon names tickles my fancy
Good morning VGIM-ers,
As mentioned last week, I am on holiday in San Sebastian. That means the newsletter is a little bit shorter than usual (stop cheering at the back) to allow me to take a week off from scouring for news and job moves.
Anyway, don’t forget that the VGIM Business Breakfast is taking place on Wednesday 10th July. You can grab tickets (or get yourself on the waitlist if the last one has gone while I’ve been chewing on Txuleta) here.
And if you want to throw me some cash to support my Summery antics, sign up as a paid VGIM Insider using a lovely 20% off discount code here or buy a sponsored slot in the free VGIM newsletter here.
For now though, let’s dive into a piece exploring some intriguing market data that came out of the US a little while ago.
See you next week!
Who plays games in America?
One of the biggest challenges that the games industry has is demonstrating that video games really are something that is enjoyed by what I like to sensitively term “the normies”.
Despite years of progress in opening up the industry to ever larger, and more diverse, audiences, there’s still a deep rooted perception that video games are the preserve of the “gamers” who spend as much time gatekeeping as they do enjoying the medium they profess to love.
Any data that I can get my hands on that disproves this is always welcome. And that’s why a recent data dump from The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the trade association representing games publishers in the United States, proved so interesting.
The latest version of its Essential Facts, an annual report into the state of play(ers), once again draws on data from the likes of YouGov, Circana, Sensor Tower and The Entertainment Software Rating Board to provide a pretty comprehensive look at who plays in the US.
And while there’s plenty of interesting stuff for us to get our teeth into, the big message of the report is clear: if you’re still thinking that the only people playing games are “gamers”, you’re making a big mistake.
Freed to pay
Before we dive into demographics, let’s talk cash and, specifically, how much wonga is spent in the US.
Circana estimates that the US video games market was valued at $57.3bn in 2023, which means it makes up the best part of a third of global video game revenues.
That figure is whopping but it isn’t a record for the market. Spending in the US has slightly sagged below its all time high of $59.6bn in 2021 - when most of us were indoors - but it is trending up from 2022’s figure of $56.6bn.
The driver of the growth was a slight bump in consumer sales across all three categories that the ESA tracks.
Sales of games content nipped upwards by half a billion dollars to reach $48bn. Hardware sales squeaked upwards from $6.57bn to $6.6bn. And the industry added $100m into the accessory category, landing on sales of $2.6bn across the land of the free.
Frustratingly, there isn’t much else in there about how exactly these sales are generated.
The report does highlight top selling games, putting Hogwarts Legacy and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 at the top of the PC and console pile with Monopoly Go, Candy Crush Saga and Roblox top of the mobile tree. It also finds that the top four types of in-game purchases made by players are in-game currency, expansion packs, skins and season passes.
But really, the lion’s share of the detail in this report is not found in the financial figures.
Instead, it’s seen in the answers of the 5000 or so people who responded to a YouGov survey about who they are, how they play and what benefits they derive from games.
And this, my friends, is where things start to get properly interesting.
Player 190m has entered the game
The immediate eye-catching headline is that 190.6m people, or 61% of the US population, report that they play video games for at least one hour a week. That’s down on the pandemic high of 200m players but it still means that playing games is a thoroughly mainstream hobby.
This statement is supported further when we begin to slice into the player demographic data stuffed into the report.
The first thing to note is that the average age of people who play video games is now 36, which is seven years above what it was in 2004.
The explanation for this is obvious enough - people who grew up liking games have now grown up, ta da! - but the fact that it aligns closely to similar figures recorded in the UK and US suggests video games are now undoubtedly an adult pursuit as much as they’re intended for children.
Next, the ethnicity of players in the US is broadly consistent with the ethnicity of the population at large.
The Essential Facts report finds that 75% of people who play are White Caucasian, 19% are Hispanic, 12% are Black, 4% are Asian or Pacific Islander and 3% are Native American or Alaskan.
In comparison, national census figures from July 2023 found that 75.5% of the population is White Caucasian, 19.1% are Hispanic or Latino, 13.6% are Black, 6.3% are Asian and 1.3% are Native American or Alaskan.
And while this means there are some inconsistencies between the two figures - such as the underrepresentation of Black and Native American or Alaskan players - the overall similarity between the two is striking: strengthening the case for the significance of diverse and inclusive content.
This point is strengthened further when we examine the sexuality of US players. This is evidenced by the fact that 11% of players identify as LGBTQ+, which is about four percentage points higher than what is seen within wider US society.
The one sticking point does appear to be the gender gap. Although the player base is closer to gender parity than it historically has been, it remains tilted 53/47 in favour of men over women.
However, the figures for gender by age show that more women than men play video games once they cross the over 50 mark. This suggests there is room to close the gap further, provided developers understand that there is a market opportunity for them to do so.
Freed to play
Nevertheless, we can see quite clearly that games have cut across broader society in a way that many of us - perhaps including a fair few people in the industry - haven’t realised. The question is why play proves so compelling across the USA.
Mechanically, the main reason that so many people play in the country are those darn smartphones we’re all glued to.
The report finds 78% of total players in the US have played on mobile in the last year. This is 31 points higher than PC (47%), 35 points higher than console (43%) and 66 points higher than Mark Zuckerberg’s beloved VR (12%). Putting play in the pockets of every person has turned out to be a major plus for the industry.
As for why people play, the answer is remarkably simple. While the industry likes to talk up the indirect benefits of playing - such as boosting brain power - the main reason people like to play is obvious: it’s enjoyable.
This is seen in the top two reasons why people say they play are to pass the time or relax (68%) and to have fun (67%). By comparison, the next two major motivations for playing - keeping the mind sharp and being immersed - were only selected by 37% and 30% of players. Tl;dr: Occam has called and he wants us to use his shiny razor.
Importantly, it’s reflected in the way families play too. 72% of parents play games themselves, with 83% of parents playing games with their children. Of those who play, the top reason for why they play together is that “it is fun for us all” with 58% of respondents selecting that.
And while there are other reasons motivating playing together, including the responsible leanings of 37% of parents who are checking content, the fact that enjoyment ranks well above enforced fun (only 44% of parents said they play because their children ask them to) is notable.
Lessons learned
So what can we learn from all this? The answer to that is a little complex in part because a) there’s a load more data in the report that’s worth scanning through and b) there are some findings deeper in the data that cut against the narrative I’ve suggested (e.g. keeping the mind sharp is a major motivator for the oldest players to keep playing).
However, I would humbly suggest as I did at the top of the newsletter that there are a few things that the games industry should learn from this and that everyone else should take note of.
First up, we’re at the point where we should be able to ease off from the argument that games “need to be taken seriously.”
For a long time, the games industry has harrumphed because it feels, somehow, that it’s not treated credibly. Reports such as this demonstrate that population cut-through has happened and that digital play is a fundamental part of life now.
This should allow the sector to stop arguing for a seat at a table and simply assume it has one as other creative industries do. And in turn, this should make it easier for the sector to court influential figures from wider society - such as political leaders, political officials and members of the commentariat - who, in all likelihood, grew up with games and know where we’re coming from.
Second, it should serve as a clip round the ears to remind the industry to benchmark its internal diversity and inclusion efforts against who actually plays.
It remains a source of frustration that no country in the world has both a publicly available data set about who plays games and one about who makes games (i.e. ESA has its Essential Facts and Ukie has its Industry Census, but neither side has the two).
Without both pieces of data, we’re left with a gap in our understanding about whether the breadth of people who play games is represented equitably by those who make them. Closing the hole in our knowledge should be a priority for the industry.
And finally, the findings in this report should act as a reminder for the industry to be unapologetic about video games as a medium of entertainment first and foremost.
For years, we’ve had the belief that the way we tell our story is by highlighting how Very Serious video games are. We, of course, shouldn’t lose sight of its value in areas such as increasing hand eye coordination, fostering soft skills like teamwork and benefitting mental health.
But equally, taking this route has deprived us of the chance to celebrate the fun of games that our players are telling us they feel. By doing so, it has allowed critics who don’t play to define the debate: forcing us on the back foot on a number of reputational issues.
When our own players are telling us that our narrative is wrong, we need to realise that we both should, and must, change our tune accordingly.
For too many years, the industry has been guided too extensively by the perception that its critics have of it but also of its own misperception of itself. This year’s Essential Facts is a reminder that, hey, games are successful because they’re great fun for quite literally almost everyone.
And if we can channel the energy from our players into enthusiastically telling the story of games in a similar way that the fine folks in film, TV and music, we might just change the way the world sees the medium for the better.
Events and conferences
Games for Change Festival, New York - 27th-28th June
Develop: Brighton, erm…Brighton - 9th-11th July
VGIM Business Breakfast, Brighton - 10th July
ChinaJoy, Shanghai - 26th-29th July
Games of the week
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD - Remake of comparatively lesser played, but excellent, sequel to Gamecube launch title arrives on Switch in time for Summer.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble - Enjoy the latest simian party game from Sega (this time with fewer monkeys dying in Monkey Target).
Until Then - Coming of age story? Unreliable narrators? Post apocalyptic landscape? Go on then…
Before you go…
What’s an evergreen palate cleansing piece of work about video games that I am confident 99% of people will enjoy as a Before You Go link?
It’s Conan O’Brien inventing Pokemon on the spot, of course. Come for the silly names, stay for how effortlessly easily he parodies Pokemon naming conventions while barely pausing for breath.