Contrary to popular belief that gamers are primarily teenage boys, ComScore insists that video games have much broader appeal. On average, gamers are 41 years of age with an average annual income of $55,000. Further, females account for 52% of the gaming audience. The average gamer has been online for nine years and 84% have broadband access at home. Heavy gamers were defined as those who played games at least 16 hours per week or played games on two or more devices for at least 11 hours per week. Light/ medium gamers played video games for less than 11 hours per week.
25% of respondents qualified as heavy gamers, while the remaining 75% fell into the light/medium gamer segment. Heavy gamers were more likely to accept and embrace in-game advertising than light/medium gamers. In fact nearly four out of ten heavy games (37%) agreed that featuring actual products or companies in games make the games feel more realistic, while 27% of light/ medium gamers agreed. Moreover, half of heavy gamers believe that advergaming is inevitable and will be in all or most games in the future, compared to 42% of light/medium gamers.
| Top motives for game purchases | |||
| Reason | Gaming Device | ||
| Console | PC | Mobile | |
| I played it before and liked it | 24% | 27% | 29% |
| It’s a sequel to a game that I like |
16% | 13% | 8% |
| I heard good things about it | 11% | 8% | 15% |
| A friend recommended it | 9% | 12% | 8% |
| Price | 8% | 8% | 9% |
| Got good reviews from critics/reviewers |
7% | 3% | 6% |
| I saw/ heard an advertisement for the game |
6% | 4% | 8% |
| I wanted to demo the game | 5% | 4% | 6% |
| Someone gave it to me, but I did not ask for it |
3% | 8% | 5% |
| Source: comScore | |||