Facebook Gaming streaming platform shared data on the composition and motives of the audience of mobile games in the USA. Among other things, it turned out that about a third of American gamers are people over the age of 45. Many of them play, wanting to get rid of stress.
This was told by Lynda Barry, Facebook‘s creative strategist, during a speech at the Pocket Gamer Connects Digital conference.
What else was in Barry’s report:
- In the USA, 230 million people over the age of 18 use the Internet. Of these, 97 million (42%) play video games in one way or another;
- 28 million gamers (12%) started playing for the first time amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;
- 86% of newcomers play on at least one device. Apparently, the remaining 14% do not consider themselves gamers. At the same time, 80% of those who do not consider video games their hobby often play mobile titles;
- Barry did not say who exactly is the main audience of mobile games, but noted — definitely not young people aged 16-24 years. They make up only 14.2% of smartphone game users;
- 43% of women log into mobile games more than five times a week. There are more paying players among women than among men (4.5% and 3.3%, respectively);
- Barry identified 8 reasons why people start playing mobile games. The two most popular are the desire to get rid of stress (62%) and the desire to pass the time (56%);
- Barry also noted that 56% of respondents consider in-game advertising monotonous.