By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - 66% of Americans are gamers, thanks to casual gaming.

LordTheNightKnight on 05 March 2008

New Stats Show Casual Explosion

Michael Dowling, CEO of new media research firm Interpret, offers some fascinating research into the gaming and buying habits of so-called casual gamers.

Using its syndicated Gameasure service, which has been designed to track a variety of metrics for videogames across multiple gaming platforms, such as user demographics, reach and frequency, and duration of play, Interpret found that, during 2007, casual games reached over 145 million people aged 12-65. Of that figure over 71 million play casual games for one or more hours per week.

Hit the jump for the rest:

 

This is even better than the height of the pre-crash era! 

 

 



A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.

Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs

Around the Network
windbane on 05 March 2008

Why are they biased against people younger than 11?

but seriously, that's good news if that many people play games. Casual games will bridge the game with people that don't understand what a hardcore videogame is.



kenzomatic on 05 March 2008

Good article, Thanks



"Back off, man. I'm a scientist."

Your theories are the worst kind of popular tripe, your methods are sloppy, and your conclusions are highly questionable! You are a poor scientist. Especially if you think the moon landing was faked.

ioi + 1
LordTheNightKnight on 05 March 2008
windbane said:
Why are they biased against people younger than 11?

but serously, that's good news if that many people play games. Casual games will bridge the game with people that don't understand what a hardcore videogame is.

It's not about "understanding". It's about those games simply not appealing to them.

Metal Gears games are not my taste, even though I do see what others see in them. 



A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.

Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs

Brianna on 05 March 2008

I beat games like ocarina of time and super metroid when I was 7 :((
Around the Network
MANUELF on 05 March 2008

I play the NES and the SNES when I was 5 or 6.



akuma587 on 05 March 2008

Yeah, people over thirty are the worst at video games usually.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

LordTheNightKnight on 05 March 2008
akuma587 said:
Yeah, people over thirty are the worst at video games usually.

Define "worst". 



A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.

Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs

Legend11 on 06 March 2008

The only thing that worries me about "casuals" and I mean the ones being brought in by games like Wii Sports is if they're going to be there for the long term. For example lets look at another hobby, doll collecting. During the Beanie Baby craze there were many people getting into the hobby of doll collecting, after the craze ended many people just there because it was the "in thing" got out of it. Basically I'm still not convinced that what's happen in gaming with casuals is a trend and not a craze.



LordTheNightKnight on 06 March 2008
Legend11 said:
The only thing that worries me about "casuals" and I mean the ones being brought in by games like Wii Sports is if they're going to be there for the long term. For example lets look at another hobby, doll collecting. During the Beanie Baby craze there were many people getting into the hobby of doll collecting, after the craze ended many people just there because it was the "in thing" got out of it. Basically I'm still not convinced that what's happen in gaming with casuals is a trend and not a craze.

Beanie Babies fell through because the market was a bubble that burst. Therefore, it is NOT a fair comparison to gaming.

By your logic, it was just a miracle Monopoly remained popular for this long, and not due to GOOD DESIGN, that STILL APPEALS TO PEOPLE.

 

Don't care if I'm using all-caps. I want my points to be absolutely clear. 



A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.

Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs