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Americans of All Ages Are Spending More on Video Games (venturebeat.com) 37

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
We know that time and money spent on video games is surging due to the pandemic. Now, industry-tracking firm The NPD Group is providing detail on where that growth is coming from. From a report: And it turns out that people across all age demographics are playing more games more often. That's big for mobile games, but it also includes Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox. In its "2020 Evolution of Entertainment" report, NPD found that 4-out-of-5 consumers in the U.S. played a game in the last six months. More important for the industry, those consumers are spending 26% more time and 33% more money on games than the same period in the previous year. But this isn't just coming from young people. Older demographics are turning to games more often as they find themselves with money they can no longer spend on dining out or attending live events. Spending on video games for Americans 45 years old-to-54 years old increased 76%. People age 55-to-64 increased their spending 29%.
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Americans of All Ages Are Spending More on Video Games More

Americans of All Ages Are Spending More on Video Games

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  • that it has got nothing to do with COVID19. Nobody is sitting at home more often, nobody has stopped going out, it's all quite like last year, isn't it?

    • They mention the pandemic in the very first sentence in the summary and article, dingdong. Congrats on taking not reading TFA to a whole new level.

      • You should ask Santa for a sarcasm reader this year.

        • Oh, I understood the sarcasm all right. It was just wrong. And since someone is wrong on the internet [xkcd.com], I'm duty-bound to respond and point this out to them. I'm sure you understand.

          • Oh, I understood the sarcasm all right. It was just wrong. And since someone is wrong on the internet [xkcd.com], I'm duty-bound to respond and point this out to them. I'm sure you understand.

            Actually, no, you didn't. You've confused it with cynicism and felt compelled to correct it. Now you believe you're being sarcastic, saying it's your duty, but you're cynic.

            So are you sure I understand?

        • oh cmon, just admit it: only your second sentence was sarcasm.

      • 50/50 chance it was some weird faceplant attempt at sarcasm. Could be a bot as well. Hard to tell these days, with everyone living in la-la land. (Especially the ones that think they aren't.)
        I mean, we have people mimicking bots mimicking retards. Grandmas and all varieties of normies have stayed plugged into the Matrix for extended periods over the last year. I'm glad to see them getting into games, at least they know that shit's not real.

        “For everyone lost in the endlessly multiplicating realities o

        • I live in the highest lockdown zone of the UK right now. I am allowed to be sarcastic.

          But to make a peace offering: I really wish I could say that you two should go out more often. I really do.

          There, better?

        • how do we know it's not bots all the way down?

      • They mention the pandemic in the very first sentence in the summary and article, dingdong. Congrats on taking not reading TFA to a whole new level.

        Yes, and briefly mentioning a factor like a global pandemic in a study related to human behavior, is kind of like briefly mentioning to someone that human feces smells bad after they've stepped out of a dirty outhouse.

        Needless to say, some shit becomes rather obvious. This was a pointless study.

    • I bought a few games recently, and a new GPU yesterday. Absolutely related to Covid. I expect another lockdown any day now, and wanted to make sure I had something to do that did not involve leaving the house.
      Linux gaming is actually a thing at last.
      And as for age demographics, I am in my early 50s.
      • I'm in the same boat. I've spent more on games in the last year than in the previous 15, mainly because in the previous 15 years I spent zero on games. Since I couldn't go racing much last year I built a sim rig and had my fun that way.
        • I stumbled across a half-way decent desktop PC i5 2400 CPU IIRC, for just a few $ so I decided to pick it up, connect to my TV and play some old games. Added a crap video card (gt 1030) and fell back in love with PC gaming. I recently built a new PC for gaming and bought the upgrade for the GPU yesterday (rx 570) Not exactly high-end these days but more than sufficient for my personal gaming needs. TF2, Minecraft, Arma, KSP, Stardew Valley, GTA Vice City (Proton rocks), and a few others.

    • it's all quite like last year, isn't it?

      If you read Slashdot, then the answer is probably yes.

  • How else are you supposed to spend a 14 day quarantine but playing Fortnite.

  • I just purchased "Captain Obvious Conquers the Pandemic Internet!" Terrific game.

  • ... and skewing statistics for the entire USA.

  • it's to bad that covid is killing pinball locations.
    That was really picking up before this covid hit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      it's to bad that covid is killing pinball locations.
      That was really picking up before this covid hit.

      It will pick up again, it's quite robust a market.

      You see, unlike playing an arcade game (of which there are dozens of emulators and re-releases for home consoles and PCs), you can't emulate a pinball machine. You can try to do a recreation of one digitally, but it's still not the same. Some simulations come close to mimicking the actual physics, but few actually do so properly.

      It's also a fairly tactile gam

  • Statistically expected. (Score:3)

    by malkavian ( 9512 ) on Monday November 30, 2020 @02:56PM (#60779448)

    Given the 55-64 were probably the very first people ever to play computer games, and they would have been the group that really didn't have much exposure to computers/computing at all, I'd expect the market to be small. These were the people who were in their mid to late teens by the time that "Pong" turned up in arcades (I remember it coming out). Definitely averaging late teens to early 20s by the time Space Invaders came out, so probably very little chance to get into gaming at that point).

    Now the 45-54 were the major start of the gamers. In the single digit ages to very early teens when Pong came out, and averaging about 9-10 when Space Invaders came out. That's exactly when kids get into things of that nature (again, I remember Space Invaders coming out pretty clearly, and got hooked on it).
    After that, the early games consoles were released largely when this age bracket was in the 10+ bracket, and started to become a distinct market that hadn't existed before.

    There's not huge attrition by mortality in this group, so the increase can partially be attributed to the boundary of the gamer generation passing into new age brackets, and their regular spending patterns on this hobby disproportionately affecting the statistics that previously existed (low, as they'd not grown up on computer games).

    I'd also expect COVID does have some impact, as on online games, I've noticed people "coming back to play" after sometimes decades away, raising families etc. as it's a good social escape in times when getting out and about physically isn't so easy.

    • > Given the 55-64 were probably the very first people ever to play computer games ... I'd expect the market to be small.

      Actually you'd be quite surprised just how large the 55+ bracket is since they have a LOT of free time. Some of the more popular PC games I've seen them play are Microsoft's Solitaire, World of Warcraft, Ultima Online, Second Life, etc. My parents were never gamers but they would constantly play Microsoft's Solitaire from Windows XP.

      On mobile the data for the "fad of the month" is al

    • Exactly this. I am 44 and grew up drooling over the Nintendo as a kid until I saved up the amazing $99 (IIRC) to buy one. So it makes sense that the market continues to grow as people who were games as kids are now gamers as adults. Sadly I feel more desire to work on my house or various projects than gaming, but I still play for several hours a week.
    • 20+ years ago I was privy to some demographic information for a best selling PC video game. There were two huge spikes in the age graph. One around 15, the other around 35. Certainly those between the spikes had massive exposure to video games too. Maybe it was genre, RTS vs shooter or something, so they just preferred a different type of game. In any case the then 35 year olds, now 55 year olds, rivaled the teenagers in terms of numbers.

      Today's 55 year olds were video game enthusiasts since the 70/80s w
    • My Dad's in his 70's and has been playing Space Invaders since "Santa" got me an Atari 2600 when I was 5. He's also a big fan of Crazy Taxi. He and his girlfriend play Vikings together on their tablets. Before video games he played D&D with his friends. Any time I bring our kids over to his place the Wii or Switch will get turned on for Just Dance, Jackbox, Mario Party or whatever, it's great! :D
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  • ... It's weird because I am more slammed with life online (more activities online) and offline (e.g., taking care of my nest and colony) even though I am locked down to go out due to my disablities, health (e.g., can easily get infected), etc. I don't even have a paid job. :/

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