50% Of Americans Play Video Games Says Pew Research
Since the 80’s, when video games truly became a genre all their own, many have wondered just how many played them. Sure, when it was just a quarter, it was easy for someone to go into a video arcade and have fun. Now though, with consoles and games costing a lot of money, it’s not so easy to determine how many people play games, or even call themselves gamers.
Thankfully, the Pew Research Center seems to have wanted to find out this answer, and it’s results are surprising:
“About half of American adults (49%) “ever play video games on a computer, TV, game console, or portable device like a cellphone,” and 10% consider themselves to be “gamers.””
Another interesting result is the “divide” between how many men and women play games. Apparently, it’s not as wide a gap as people think:
“A majority of American adults (60%) believe that most people who play video games are men – a view that is shared by 57% of women who themselves play video games. But the data illustrates that in some ways this assumption is wrong: A nearly identical share of men and women report ever playing video games (50% of men and 48% of women).”
This is truly interesting, and indicative of what gaming means to our culture today. Pew Research went even deeper than the results above, you can check out their full finds in the link above.