Gaming Britain
A Nation United by Digital Play
Gaming Britain:
A Nation United by Digital Play
32.9 million UK game players
Non game players are actually in the minority The message is loud and clear: playing video games is now an engrained and mainstream activity in the UK, presenting a highly engaged, varied and appealing audience for advertisers.
•
•
Gaming Britain is a nationally representative report showing the • size of the UK’s gaming audience, how and why people play, the frequency of play, the platforms they • play on and a breakdown of different demographics. It is available for IAB • members to download free on our website www.iabuk.net/games.
With 82% of 8-65 year olds playing games, this medium is too mainstream to be the behaviour of a niche stereotype Over 27.6 million Adults play games 79% of Adult internet users 16 - 65 years
Over 5 million 8-15 year olds play games 98% of Kids 8 - 15 years
This study was conducted by the IAB Games Steering Group in partnership with Kantar Media. The Games Steering Group is the UK’s only committee of leading experts dedicated to helping advertisers make the most of games media, including: • • • • • • • • •
Nick Boulstridge, Electronic Arts (EA) Rumbi Pfende, Gamehouse (formerly RealGames) Ben Howard, GameSpot UK James Salins, IGA Worldwide Rich Keen, IGN Entertainment Noam Korin, In Play Media Tim Kimber, Microsoft Advertising Kerry Lee, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) David Rose, We R Interactive
Game players are not just young men The gaming audience is equally split male and female with 77% of people over the age of 25 years old. Just over half of whom are in the ABC1 demographic. 49% Female
51% Male
25-45 44%
45-65 33% 16-24 23%
C2DE 46%
ABC1 54%
Base - All Adult Game Players: 2,396
Playing games is a highly social activity Some 72% of adult players (16 – 65 years old) play socially - either in person or online - while 96% of children (8 – 16 years old) play socially. A definite weekday pattern in usage Only mobile devices differ in usage during the week with all others peaking during primetime (8pm – 10pm). At weekends usage is much more spread out throughout the day.
80
Any gaming
70 56%
60 41%
40
20 10 0
68% 65%
Mobile/Tablet
51%
50
30
Without mobile
29% 24% 21%
31% 28%
22%
37%
37%
38% 35%
33% 22% 14% 11% 9%
Morning Lunchtime Afternoon Early Evening Mid Evening Late evening Overnight (6am-12pm) (12pm-2pm) (3pm-5pm) (5pm-7pm) (8pm-10pm) (10pm-12am) (12am-6am)
Social Network, PC/Laptop & Games Consoles were the devices that delivered the greatest time spent playing over a week 0-30mins
120
30mins-1hr
100
80
9%
38%
8%
26%
8% 17%
29%
60
34% 40
4%
17%
26%
33%
1-3 hrs Over 3hrs Avg. sessions per week
21%
68% 46%
18%
4% 7%
42%
35%
20
0
6%
32%
45%
28%
18%
Internet Games PC/Laptop Social Networking Browser Console Games Games
Handheld
Mobile / Tablet
Game playing can be a time of social interaction Gaming isn’t just done in isolation and can be a way to bring groups together. • 72% of all game players have played games with others • 81% of games console players have played with friends or family in person • 54% of social networking players have played with friends or family online or over a network • 41% of internet browser games are played with unknown people online or across a network Segmenting the gaming audience The full version of the Gaming Britain research includes an advanced behavioural segmentation that breaks the audience down into seven different categories. This lets you see the types of game player, the platforms they play on and demographic information for planning purposes. Research released September 2011 Contact info@iabuk.net for more information