45 Percent Of Heavy Video Gamers Are In The Six - To 17-Year-Old Age Group

NPD: Study Explores Uncharted Territory of Multi-Dimensional Gamer Segmentation-Common Assumption that Serious Gaming is Focused Mainly on 18 - to 34-year-old Males to the Exclusion of Kids and Females. Contrary to popular belief that most video game players, and particularly serious video game players, are 18- to 34-year-old males, 45 percent of the NPD Heavy Gamer segment and nearly one-in-three Avid Console Gamers, the largest overall segment, are between the ages of six and 17

The report, which identifies six gamer segments - Heavy Gamers, Avid Console Gamers, Mass Market Gamers, Prefer Portable Gamers, Secondary Gamers, and Infrequent Gamers – provides deep insight into gamer segments by key behavioral and demographic metrics to better target relevant segments for sales and marketing. The report defines the platforms, titles, genres, and retailers that are attracting various types of consumers, to inform product development strategies and to identify opportunity gaps while leveraging areas of strength.

Heavy Gamers’ demographic/gender parameters also expand beyond 18- to 34-year-old males: 21 percent of this segment is female. The Heavy Gamer segment comprises only 3 percent of the total game playing population, contrary to common assumption that these serious gamers constitute a larger percentage of the game-playing population and retail sales dollars.

Heavy gamers can be critical to a title or retailer’s success since they are the market leaders, but focusing on this segment entirely is ignoring a much broader consumer base and larger revenue potential.

Those in the Prefer Portable segment may also be older than previously thought. While the majority of these gamers are under 18 years of age, one in three is 18-44 years old..

Video Gamer Segmentation Report. Publ 20060919