Gamers: they're not who you think they are

Talk about shattering a stereotype: The second quarter results of Game Metrix, a quarterly syndicated study analyzing gamers' online behaviors and attitudes combined with a survey of 800 respondents, gives us a whole new picture of who the typical gamer is these days.

Contrary to popular belief that gamers are primarily teenage boys, results of the study indicate 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 percent of the gaming audience. The average gamer has been online for nine years and 84 percent have broadband access at home.

Comments

[Meg]

Doesn't surprise me. I got solidly hooked on Doom I and II when they came out, and I was well over 30 at the time. Still my favorite games of all time, and NOBODY beats the Doomstress!

[Jamie]

I'm a gamer chick, too...
age: 37.
married, three kids.

[G-Man]

Wow....I always felt that I was a minority online......I'm 40 and make $60k! On the other hand, the crowd I play with all SEEM to be teens and lower 20-somethings........hmmmmmm.

[jtmoney]

Blah...it looks like the report polled 800 respondents. There must be tens of millions of people playing computer and console games. I don't see how polling 800 of them can reliably point to any sort of demographic.

Does online gambling count as gaming? Or are we just talking about games like The Sims, Second Life, WoW, and games like Literati or Bejeweled?

[Martin]

Don't believe it. There is no way that the average gamer income is $55,000. I'm 56, earn substantially less than that and I play Unreal Tournament online. I have little doubt that 95% of the other UT players are under 25. The majority (NOT all) are male.

Just exactly how did they define GAMER? What did they define as a GAME? Where did they find their 800 'respondents'?

Blah.