Britain has more gamers than anywhere else in Europe
Britain has more online and console gamers than anywhere else in Europe, according to the 2009 UK National Gamers Survey from TNS and Gamesindustry.com.
Of those questioned for the research, 73% regularly play games, with many ranking gaming as their favourite pastime, ahead of going online and watching TV.
Young men between the ages of 13 and 19 spend on average 11 hours per week playing games, and boys as young as eight admit to gaming seven and a half hours a week.
Historically smaller gaming segments are also increasing: 86% of girls play games and 42% of people over the age of 50 say that they spend more time gaming than reading magazines.
Britons are also the most likely to pay for games; while 10% of gamers in the Netherlands admit to regularly making illegal copies of popular console games, only 4% of Britons do the same.
Stephen Palmer, group director at TNS Technology, said: “Gaming has rapidly expanded in popularity and now appeals to as wide an audience as TV and the internet. In several cases, young and old are even moving away from traditional media and spend their free time playing games instead.
“The variety of games on offer has drawn in segments of the population that would not ordinarily be associated with gaming, which has turned the traditional view of the ‘gamer’ on its head. With the pressure put on media through advertising cuts, gaming is emerging as the forum through which to target consumers of the future.”
Earlier this year,research from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which represents US computer and video game publishers, found that 68% of American households play computer or video games.
The number of households playing games was up 3% year on year.