91% OF KIDS ARE GAMERS
NPD Group
LISTEN To The Daily Numbers podcast [MP3].
91% of U.S. kids between 2-17 are gamers.
While 2-17 year old population increased 1.54% since 2009.
But the gaming population of that age group has grown 12.68%.
THOUGHT: While gaming amongst the kids is ubiquitous, it’s important to keep in mind that the average gamer is 37 years old and the average age of the most frequent purchaser of games is 41 years old.
As I’ve said before: We’re all gamers now.
The media stereotype left over from our Gen X youth of slacker kids playing console video games in their parents’ basement no longer holds true, if it ever did.
Games are the most popular type of apps for tablet computers. Angry Birds is a gaming blockbuster, in part because people have access to it everywhere they go on their smart phone. Social gaming takes up a larger percentage of the time spent on Facebook. Millions of people check in at locations through Foursquare.
The concept of gaming is so mainstream, they’re making a film out of FarmVille.
But beyond entertainment, gaming dynamics are being applied to all kinds of problems, from corporate training and recruiting to professional sports to solving science problems.
- Baseball players are wearing an electronic shirt that analyzes their delivery
- Gamers have solved in ten days a problem scientists had been struggling over for more than ten years
- Consumers: Gaming is becoming a common activity so paying attention to how consumers behave with regard to games and how they may bring that behavior and the expectations that are set through gaming to the workplace and the marketplace.
- Technology: How will/can gaming technology be applied to other areas or applications as the two examples above illustrate. Gaming technology continues to evolve into different categories of gaming, the most recent of which are social and tablet games. As does the technology itself, as evidenced by more realistic presentation of games like L.A. Noire and more realistic manipulation of games like the Xbox Kinect.
- Generational: As the stats at the beginning of this piece show, all the kids are gaming. As the grow to become future customers, they will bring that behavior, those experiences, that culture and those references with them.
KEYWORD WEDNESDAY: Want to see whether or not a political movement has staying power? One way you might do it is through search volume. Here’s a chart that compares the search terms “Occupy Wall Street” and “Occupy” during the past thirty days. [CHART.]
Thank you for rubber bands.
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