Recent data from the Entertainment Software Association shows video games are a wider market than we can imagine.

Video games are neither male-dominated or only for children.

Source: ESA’s Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry report.

According to recent data from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) report, 45% of all gamers in the United States are female, while the average gamer is 34 years old.

The average male video game player in the U.S., according to ESA, is 32 years old, while the average female player is even older (36), proving that since prime time commercialization for video games in the 1970s, the industry has been remarkable at renewing itself, as 60% of Americans play video games on a daily basis today.

Key findings form the ESA report also show that 64% of U.S. households own a device that they use to play video games, as an average of 2 gamers exist in each U.S. household.

After surveying 4,000 American households and the heads of and most frequent gamers within each household about their video game playing habits and attitudes, 42% of responders said they play with friends, 19% do so with family, 17% do it with parents, and 16% play with their spouse.

A growing industry supporting employment

The video game industry reached a record level of $36 billion during 2017; $29.1 billion was spent on content, $4.7 billion in hardware, and $2.2 billion in accessories.

Aside from the revenue build-up, video games have proven to be an industry capable of supporting more than 200,000 jobs in the United States, as 95% of video game companies were founded inside the U.S., turning it into its strongest local market.

Employment in the video game industry grew at an annual rate of 2.9%, more than double the rate of the U.S. job market.

Gamers… not who you think

Most people think of gamers as Xbox-obsessed teenagers, but it turns out that mobile is by far the more popular place to play. Actually, mobile gamers make up 88.8% of digital gamers, and span all ages.

By the end of 2019, 147.8 million people in the US are expected play mobile games, according to eMarketer estimates, compared to 91 million digital console players.

Lexi Sydow, marketing insights manager at App Annie, said regarding the future of gaming: “You don’t have to have experienced strategy multiplayer games anymore, and that idea will continue and turn everyone into a gamer.”