I don't believe those numbers for a second, and they're trying to charge 3k for access. That's absurd.
it's 100% that they count mobile games as "gaming" so grandma and grandpa playing candy crush and wordle are "gamers" now. They list 11% on console but even that seems high. 23% on PC probably includes wordle too.
It might, but PC would definitely have its share of older gamers. MMORPGs for an example, attract them. I believe the oldest I ran into in my Runescape days was over 70. Of course that's if you believe peoples' claimed ages.
My girlfriends 70 year old nana plays horizon zero dawn on PS4, in her words "i die a lot but I'm enjoying it"
MMORPGs for an example, attract them
According to the article: not really, the vast majority of them prefer single player.
They are definitely including casual mobile 'gamers' in the 1/3rd number.
The article says 55+ is only around 11% of console gamers, for example.
Are they also all born on January first?
That's something I failed to consider when reading the headline. 😅
Does this include mobile games and especially gamefied gambling like candy crush etc because that I can believe.
It is tempting to assume that older gamers exclusively play low-fidelity games on their smartphones. This is simply untrue.
While mobile is certainly the biggest part of the games market in terms of revenues, 55+ gamers account for 23% of monthly PC gamers and 11% of monthly console gamers.
This can happen when the global economy is in the toilet.
If only retirees can afford to participate in a hobby, thats usually an indicator that whatever that hobby is is too expensive. A lower price would make it more prolific and generate more potential sales, likely to increase revenue overall by volume.
Like how Ferrari cars are designed for 20 year olds but only 80 year olds can afford to buy them.
I see your point, but I'm not sure I would argue gaming is an expensive hobby. You can pick up a second-hand console and a handful of games under $500. PC gaming is a different beast (obviously).
To me this number just makes logical sense. A 55 year old could easily have grown up playing video games and leaning into that towards and into retirement seems like a pretty normal next step.
I would fully expect and hope that when I retire in ~25 years I'll join the ranks of older gamers.
When a single game costs $70 I’d call it an expensive hobby.
Sure, you can buy an old gen console and only purchase old second hand games, but modern gaming is expensive.
$70 at release. Unless you need a play a game right now that price can easily drop by half or more if you wait a year for sales. There are almost no games I buy on day-one anymore.
This has the added bonus of them usually being patched to be less buggy with more quality of life improvements.
Also, $70 is still pretty cheap in the grand scheme of hobbies. Google tells me the average price of a movie ticket is $11. So rounded up that's 1 game = 6.5 movies. If a movie is 2 hours long that's 13 hours of enjoyment. I can easily sink 50+ hours into an AAA title (hell my wife just put 110 hours into FF VII Rebirth). That doesn't count replayability.
That’s my point though, movies are also considered a pretty expensive hobby. People aren’t going to theaters and piracy is sky high currently because it’s simply getting too expensive for a single movie ticket. Tickets near me, for example, are $15 minimum, with some being over $20. So for my family to go to the movies it could be $100 minimum for one movie, and god forbid anyone wants snacks.
And just like gaming, you can simply wait for every movie you want to watch to end up in the bargain bin on dvd, but imo that’s a different discussion entirely. When people talk about a hobby being expensive, they’re usually not talking about the lowest possible entry point.
I guess it would be more accurate to say that gaming and movies can be expensive, not that they inherently are. Like, you can grab a Steam Deck and solely stick to grabbing indie games during sales and ultimately not spend that much, at least relative to the alternative.
Not all gamers are triple A gamers. I'd call myself an avid gamer (I used to put in easily 80 hour weeks gaming, now it's almost always lower, but I'll still go on gaming binges during long vacations or holidays).
The vast, vast majority of my time has been WoW and LoL. I have played other games throughout the years, but usually in the same genres (mmo/moba).
A lot of these games have entry fees of below $70. Right now most of my gaming time is cata classic, and that requires $15 a month. Over time that will obviously add up, but everything adds up overtime, and $15 a month is not prohibitively expensive for most people. Also it's really only $15 for the first month, just by leveling in cata classic to max you make enough to buy a wow token, and can easily pay $0 a month every month by just using in game currency.
Man, have you ever tried bowling or god forbid golf, movies, or guns?
I've got games where I've paid the equivalent of less than a dollar per hour of entertainment and that's after optional micro-transactions.
Back in my day, you paid $20-$30 for a new cartridge or tape and you fucking loved it. That's about $60-$90 in today's money.
The purchase price hasn't changed much, it's the add on expansions, online access, micro transactions, and miscellaneous bullshit.
You can buy a steam deck and play effectively an unlimited number of hours worth of cheap games. Not going to be everyone's cup of tea of course but it's definitely a very accessible way to game price wise.
Totally agree, I actually brought up the Steam Deck in another comment
When I was a teenager in the early 2000s, typical retail price for a game was $50.
That's equivalent to about $85 today.
The vast majority of the games I buy today are well under $50.
I would expect someone's whose 55 is probably more interested in classic games anyway. An older friend of mine was in his 20s during the 80s and has fond memories of the arcades, Atari and NES. So that's what he plays.
PC gaming is much cheaper. A desktop, while being more expensive initially, will last much longer than a console. And the games on PC are much, much cheaper.
I would say that the Steamdeck no longer makes PC gaming a different beast. Prior to that you would definitely lose people in self builds and budgeting complexities.
Games aren't ferraris. Get out of here with that. Just because you want the billion dollar games to cost $10 doesn't mean games are out of reach for everyone. Between free-to-play games and the ocean of indie games available online, gaming has never been more accessible.
The reason older people are gaming is because they're the first generation to have grown up with games as a thing. 55 year olds were children when the Atari came out. They've grown up with it. Why would they stop just because they're older?
I disagree. This is just a market maturing. Gaming is relatively new compared to other media and really started exploding in the late 80's and 90's. Someone aged 55 is still a decade away from retirement and has probably been playing games since the late 80's. It's totally possible they've been gamers the whole time.
And gaming is hardly so expensive as to be compared to Ferrari. There's still plenty of ways to play games cheap. People pick up used games and older consoles all the time. Even new, games aren't prohibitively expensive. Don't get me wrong. A new console is not cheap by any means, but there are plenty of ways to enjoy video games and not spend thousands. You don't have to have the newest stuff to enjoy games.
Also who said Ferrari's are designed for 20 year olds?
I think the point is just that young people don't participate as much as they would because they don't have the money for it. In previous decades young people had more money to spend.
Consoles and Gaming PC parts (GPUs especially) are increasing in price at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills. $70 for new games now, or you can pay $120 every year, but you don't own anything. I meanz, you also don't own the $70 games either, but you extra don't own games on a subscription service. Old games are there and fine, but in comparison to the current economy, where inflation around the globe is higher than it has been on average since video games were really a thing, new games are a very expensive hobby.
Directly dollar for dollar, it may be comparable, but taking the economy into picture, games in the past were cheaper. Especially considering how much revenue video games generate now. Prices should be lower, but expected infinite business growth from shareholders is preventing that.
Also who said Ferrari's are designed for 20 year olds?
Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, did. He didn't specify exactly 20 year olds, but his quote was "I build cars for young men that only rich old men can afford." Or something similar to that effect, as the quote would have been originally in italian.
That doesn't explain why the 16-34 range is the biggest one by far and why the younger the age group the more likely they are to play online games which usually are far less respecting of players times - people with responsibilities need a pause button.
Like how Ferrari cars are designed for 20 year olds but only 80 year olds can afford to buy them.
I mean, making the comparison to motorsports just emphasizes how cheap gaming is as a hobby.
Autocross is as entry level as you can get and a typical ~$50 entry fee gets you maybe 10 minutes of seat time and it's typical to need to drive 2-3 hours each way for an event. That's before you start adding in things like the fact that a $1500 set of tires will last you a season or two at most, suspension and brake upgrades easily running a couple of thousand dollars, etc.
Start dipping into actual track time and fees jump to more like $250-750 plus around that much again for track insurance per event. And the upgrades needed for the car to hold up on track are even more expensive still. And this is all ignoring the purchase price of the car and potentially needing to trailer a dedicated track car.
I've almost certainly spent far less on PC gaming in the last 5 years combined than I have on motorsports in the past 3 months. I'm on the upper end of spending for most gamers and a dabbler at best when it comes to the cars.
The insanity of the GPU market since covid has put some upward pressure on things but A. the proliferation of great indie titles means you can get incredible value without breaking bank on the highest end equipment and B. even then, the money I spent literally tonight ordering just brake pads and rotors would buy you a 4070 all day long. And I went cheaper than I could have.
Gaming dollars go a long, long way. It's a hobby that was affordable even when I was younger and broke. It's still relatively affordable compared to many, many other hobbies.
my age old prediction will come true: bingos will be replaced by lan houses just you wait.
My generation was the first to have a childhood with video games, so it's not surprising we're sticking with them. I certainly have no intention to stop playing them as long as I'm physically able.
Ya, not surprising. I'm in my late 40' and game. My father was gaming in his 70's until his death. My mother, also in her 70's, plays Minecraft. Video games aren't the domain of kids anymore. The kids who played them grew up and some folks started to take to them in their later years. They are just another form of entertainment now and not some nerdy, niche thing. Quit trying to gatekeep fun.
I'm gonna game until I fucking die.
I’d like to, that’s for sure.
I’m almost out of certified classics to play though and this loot box, cosmetic, buy this, buy that, always online crap don’t appeal to me.
There are plenty of new games without any of that crap.
They are mostly Indie titles but not necessarily.
how'd they get from 26% in one segment to "almost one third" headline?
Who the fuck buys this drivel for £3,000
Surely if someone is buying research, they dont want to literally buy hype.
Damn I'm 54, I need to hold on another year...
Just hang on. You’re almost there. Almost 56. Other than some arthritis, gaming ain’t all that bad.
And my kids absolutely will get access to my Steam library after I'm gone. We'll see what they think about all those AVN, haha!
Ive been playing rocket league since 2015 and I still play and I'm in my thirties. It's so funny when people get toxic and immediately pull out the "ahh you're a 12 year old" and then I say I'm in my 30s and it's all "wow so sad to be playing games so old" get fucked kids the old people are here to play games and you can't stop us.
I avoid online games because I'm old and don't have time to practice like teenagers do.
Woo-hoo, I'm a youngster (in this deomgraphic)!
Gaming never truly recovered after the 2003 late golden age and 2006 fall when the first microtransaction released. Sims 2, kotor, Jedi outcast, fable, dark messiah, command conquer, wh40k dawn of war, battle for middle earth, morrowind, fallout 2, icewind, baldurs, system shock, tw medieval 2, cod 2, neverwinter, half life, gta sa, civ 4, aoe 2- most are still better than modern equivalents except graphics and QoL
The rare brief time when the big money flowed and fuelled innovation instead of playing it safe and stale. Almost everything today is just a rehash of that era with slapped microtransactions on top
This is an absolutely absurd out of touch take. High quality games by indie devs is more common then ever, we are seeing a resurgence of story driven games that have ZERO MTX.
I got some news for ya pal, “gaming” is not Ubisoft and EA. For example, Sony’s exclusives: horizon, spider man, god of war, the last of us, uncharted, and that is ONLY SONY.
In the milsim genre there is a HUGE renaissance of games like ground branch, grayzone, six days in fallujah, etc. this is the case for many genres right now and has been for years at this point.
You are quite literally judging the ENTIRE fucking industry on a few big name studios and the shit they push out.
Putting that aside for a moment, even then, your take doesnt reflect reality. Sony is one of the biggest right now studio wise in console games and they’ve been bridging the gap to PC for years now.
In a shift from previous strategies, Sony has revealed a new focus for the PlayStation 5 that prioritizes increasing the amount of time users spend playing on the console, rather than solely concentrating on the quantity of game sales. This strategic change reflects an evolving consumer behavior observed during the era of the PS4, aiming to boost profitability through enhanced engagement within the PlayStation ecosystem
If anything, the big dogs are walking away from mtx and sales numbers and focusing on what makes good games that bring people back.
Furthermore,
The man who heads PlayStation Productions and product at PlayStation Studios believes that the future of gaming will be about "immersive narratives." In fact, Asad Qizilbash thinks developers will focus on emotional storytelling over visual fidelity in the future.
Which takes down your other stance about how it’s only about graphics these days. Again it’s not just the big dogs, have you seriously NOT seen the insane amount of extremely popular games that use retro styles? Years and years old like hotline Miami, or brand new like animal well, etc. it never stopped.
Video game dunkey’s BigMode studio is yet another great example of these concepts and priorities reaching popularity and approval
almost everything today is a rehash
You are simply telling on yourself here. We get it, you are not connected to where gaming is today, whether that be due to nostalgia or perhaps a hyper focus on a specific niche, but to judge the state of the entire goddamn industry based on that?
Bottom line: make ann effort to actually play some well received and highly regarded games just from the past five years and you’ll understand why your take is hollow.
that's only true for big publishers. sounds like you never look at indie or indie publisher games.
meanwhile I'm losing my mind because i don't think I'll ever have enough time to even try half the games in interested in playing.
just this month about a dozen games were released that I want to play. how will I ever keep up?
Count me in. Only I wait until the price drops below $20 before ineven consider a purchase.
This is also very likely due to older people seeing gaming as an affordable and enjoyable hobby, which would raise the average age. Gaming is the most accessible it has ever been, so it'd make sense.
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