The gamer population hasn’t grown much in the U.S., unless you consider the mobile gaming market. There, it’s really on the rise.
A new report provided by global information provider The NPD Group indicates that the number of what they call Avid Omni Gamers, players who spend time on multiple systems (including consoles and mobile) has risen 6 percentage points to 22 percent of the overall gaming population. As a result, they replace the casual gaming audience as the second largest gamer segment, compared to last year. Free & Mobile Gamers continues to lead the charge with an estimated 29 percent of the U.S. gamer population, but, as you can see, Avid Omni Gamers are clearly gaining.
71 percent of gamers in the U.S. overall prefer to use their mobile devices to play video games, which shows an increase of four percent over the previous year. That makes it the only type of gaming device that shows a year-to-year growth in terms of usage.
Although the mobile device is preferred by the Avid Omni and Free & Mobile groups, many others, including Casual Gamers and Social Gamers, continue to rely on the PC as their top machine. Meanwhile, consoles continue to be quite popular in the Core Console Gamer and Family Gamer markets, according to the report.
As for spending habits on game systems, about $48 on average is spent over a three month period on physical products, which approximately $16 is spent on digital products. These are an increase over last year’s numbers, with $45 on physical titles and $11 on digital.
No matter which way you cut it, video game spending continues to be on the rise, and mobile devices continue to play their part. With Apple and Samsung set to launch new devices later this year, you can expect this trend to keep up.
Source: NPD
