U.S. Gamer Population Is Declining

[JoshV]

U.S. Gamer Population Is Declining

Family gaming has seen the strongest decline, while more people are playing mobile and digitally-distributed games than ever before.

With video games as ubiquitous as they are to us today, it may come as a surprise that the population of people playing games - at least, in the United States - has actually decreased this year. Nevertheless, a study conducted by market research firm NPD Group indicates exactly that. According to the report, 211.5 million people in the U.S. currently play video games, a 5% decline from 2011 estimates, or nearly 12 million people.

The study divided gamers into six segments: Core, Avid PC, Casual PC, Digital, Mobile, and Family+Kid. Except for Digital and Mobile, all segments saw a marked decline, with Family+Kid declining most significantly - a decline estimated at 17.4 million. However, in a spot of good news, the Mobile and Digital segments both saw significant growth, with the population of Mobile gamers increasing dramatically, from 13% in 2011 to 22% today, becoming the largest segment of gaming in the U.S. as a result. Digital gamers increased by 4 percentage points to 16% of the population.

Despite its decline, NPD Group industry analyst Anita Frazier asserted that revenues from the Core segment "outpace all other segments," and that it "remains vital to the future of the industry." Core gamers reportedly spent an average of $65 on physical games over the past three months, a significant increase over the average $48 of the gaming population overall.

Source: NPD Group [https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/pressreleases/pr_120905]

Image: Being Poetry [http://02f6373.netsolhost.com/WordPress/?p=1292]

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[Sigmund Av Volsung]

What does the study mean by "digital" gaming; if its talking about gaming via cloud/digital distribution, doesn't it count as part of avid/casual PC?

 

[cidbahamut]

There were too many buzz words in that article for me to take it seriously.

 

[Legion]

I always wonder where they get these studies results from. I never see online questionnaires of surveys, and do not know anybody who does.

If it is merely taking about sales, then that's never going to be an accurate representation of gamers anyway. It doesn't take into account borrowing games, renting them or in the worst case, stealing or pirating them.

There is also the case of economy as well as the fact that the game line-up this year as been pretty poor so far, as they are saving all the big names for Christmas.

 

[Mortamus]

There were too many buzz words in that article for me to take it seriously.

This.

With the other categories moving to mobile or digital, we aren't really seeing a drop in gamer populace, but just a change in location so to speak.

 

[Mortamus]

I always wonder where they get these studies results from. I never see online questionnaires of surveys, and do not know anybody who does.

If it is merely taking about sales, then that's never going to be an accurate representation of gamers anyway. It doesn't take into account borrowing games, renting them or in the worst case, stealing or pirating them.

There is also the case of economy as well as the fact that the game line-up this year as been pretty poor so far, as they are saving all the big names for Christmas.

This as well.

In my personal experience, gamers are growing. My girlfriend was never a gamer, and is now avidly addicted to Pokemon, Minecraft, Skyrim, and even was a WoW nut for a time. This is happening alot, and I've seen it more as I've grown older. When I was a kid, playing video games made you a dork or any other variation of the word. Nowadays, it's considered a common past time. Everyone has some video game that they play.

Based just on that, I don't see how the populace is declining.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

That survey doesn't show the decline in gaming population. If you read between the lines you're realize that it shows the decline of willingness to spend as much money on games as people used to. Which I predicted. And it's not just in America probably.

Prices, DLC, online passes and other shit had finally taken a toll. People can't fuckin' keep up with that shit. Of course they're gonna start spending their money elsewhere when you make it so difficult for them to enjoy AAA titles. Nowadays I buy most of the games on Steam sales. I can get 3 full games with all the DLC one year after they've been released for the price of 1 game on it's release date. Why the fuck would I spend more to have less when I can spend less and have more? I'm not a fuckin' idiot.

 

[Farther than stars]

What does the study mean by "digital" gaming; if its talking about gaming via cloud/digital distribution, doesn't it count as part of avid/casual PC?

The avid/casual probably only concerns hard copies of games. And digital includes services like XBLA and PSN, which aren't available for PC. There's some overlap, of course, but this is their own defined marketing demographic, in which that overlap probably doesn't matter so much.
Regardless, this data is of course only an increment. Looking over the last decade gaming is still on the rise and probably will be until it hits its plateau. After that it probably won't decrease dramatically, barring that the entire industry does something that would be considered scandalous by the American public.
To illustrate: I see people gaming in public more and more these days and of varying age groups. A culture can still flourish whether or not it's backed by "official" figures.

 

[Terminate421]

Can we change the title? It sounds like it may lead to the industry crashing.

I think it might have to do with sales or something along those lines, if we see a steady decline over the next two years it might be bad.

But with a rise in mobile games? Thats good, it leads to a more accessible and open market.

 

[Albino Boo]

I always wonder where they get these studies results from. I never see online questionnaires of surveys, and do not know anybody who does.

If it is merely taking about sales, then that's never going to be an accurate representation of gamers anyway. It doesn't take into account borrowing games, renting them or in the worst case, stealing or pirating them.

There is also the case of economy as well as the fact that the game line-up this year as been pretty poor so far, as they are saving all the big names for Christmas.

From the link in the article

Methodology

An online survey was fielded in March 2012 to members of NPD?s online panel. Responses for kids under age 13, as well as some kids in the 13-15 age range, were captured through surrogate reporting (where the parent answers on behalf of the child). The data is weighted and representative of the US population ages 2 and older. The study is based on 8,488 completed surveys.

Pretty standard market research in other words. I suspect the reason why gaming has declined the state of the economy, games are after all a luxury.

 

[Farther than stars]

I always wonder where they get these studies results from. I never see online questionnaires of surveys, and do not know anybody who does.

It was probably done by an academic method called "sampling" by which researchers focus on a particular percentage of a population as opposed to the entire population (in which the research is called a "census"). The reason researchers don't like to do this randomly is because they then can't determine a balance between demographics as easily.

If it is merely taking about sales, then that's never going to be an accurate representation of gamers anyway.

Agreed, and judging by the last paragraph of the article this research definitely does have a sales perspective, but take another look at the actual wording of the conclusion:

With video games as ubiquitous as they are to us today, it may come as a surprise that the population of people playing games - at least, in the United States - has actually decreased this year.

So the statement here concerns the "population playing games", which doesn't specify bought games, free games or illegal downloads, it just indicates games in general and how many people have been playing them over the last year.

 

[Aureliano]

Ahh the true core gamers. None of that digital stuff. They're hardcore with their etch-a-sketches, their tic tac toe boards and...uh, regular basketball? Like on a basketball court?

 

[Falterfire]

I find it funny that Gamers are still considered to be on the fringe despite 211 million (roughly 2/3rds of all Americans) playing them demonic vidya gaems.

 

[octafish]

I guess I would be an Avid PC Gamer, despite not owning a media composer/editing suite. (I am reasonably certain no-one is going to get that joke). Thank goodness I'm not counted as a "core" gamer.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

What does the study mean by "digital" gaming; if its talking about gaming via cloud/digital distribution, doesn't it count as part of avid/casual PC?

The avid/casual probably only concerns hard copies of games. And digital includes services like XBLA and PSN, which aren't available for PC. There's some overlap, of course, but this is their own defined marketing demographic, in which that overlap probably doesn't matter so much.

They helpfully don't define it anywhere I was able to find quickly poking around on their site either, but that seems like a safe guess. In that case, it would include things like Steam, Origin, GOG, Amazon downloads, etc., which make up the majority of PC game sales. Steam makes up the majority of that segment by a significant amount, and they don't report their numbers to NPD at all. There's a reason I've considered NPD's info to be less accurate than they present it for a while. I'm sure they know it is, and if they were trying to be scientific, they'd say so and give explanations and error bars and whatnot, but they're in marketing and trying to get people to buy it, so...

I guess I would be an Avid PC Gamer, despite not owning a media composer/editing suite. (I am reasonably certain no-one is going to get that joke). Thank goodness I'm not counted as a "core" gamer.

You could be a Final Cut Gamer instead. I kind of like the sound of Premiere Gamer...

 

[Farther than stars]

What does the study mean by "digital" gaming; if its talking about gaming via cloud/digital distribution, doesn't it count as part of avid/casual PC?

The avid/casual probably only concerns hard copies of games. And digital includes services like XBLA and PSN, which aren't available for PC. There's some overlap, of course, but this is their own defined marketing demographic, in which that overlap probably doesn't matter so much.

They helpfully don't define it anywhere I was able to find quickly poking around on their site either, but that seems like a safe guess. In that case, it would include things like Steam, Origin, GOG, Amazon downloads, etc., which make up the majority of PC game sales. Steam makes up the majority of that segment by a significant amount, and they don't report their numbers to NPD at all. There's a reason I've considered NPD's info to be less accurate than they present it for a while. I'm sure they know it is, and if they were trying to be scientific, they'd say so and give explanations and error bars and whatnot, but they're in marketing and trying to get people to buy it, so...

Well, a scientist is not obliged to publish their results for the public to see. And I believe they did leave contact information on the site, so you could of course always just ask them whether they might share those numbers with you.
To be honest, I'm really just playing devil's advocate here. You might be completely right, but I always feel it's a little pointless to dispute information for not presenting sufficient evidence when you* yourself cannot present overbearing counter-evidence.

*That's a 'royal you' by the way; nothing of this is meant personally.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

Maybe there are fewer gamers because there are fewer GAMES being released.

Seriously, what's with this drought? PS3 has no games coming out, PS Vita has no games coming out, 360 has no games coming out, Wii has no games coming out, 3DS has no games coming out (that I care about, anyway).

The only game I care about at this point is Dishonored... and that's still a month away...

 

[Woodsey]

So uhh... what the hell does digital count as?