Even though gaming is most popular among young men, other demographics also enjoy video games. Some 6 in 10 US adults (61%) surveyed by Hub Entertainment Research report playing some kind of video game, with 37% of men age 55+ and 44% of women in the same bracket also claiming to play electronically. Furthermore, more than half (56%) of all respondents say they play at least once a week.
This popularity hasn’t gone unnoticed by marketers, as PwC estimates that $1.6 billion will be spent on advertising in video games in 2019, making it a larger market than cinema advertising and podcast advertising.
But another reason that brands should get excited about in-game advertising is that gamers seem to have positive views of sponsored content. Of those that are both aware of sponsored content and have played games featuring it, some 3 in 5 say that it made them enjoy the game more as a result. This is a substantially higher proportion than those who said they enjoyed the game less (23%) or were indifferent (19%). In addition, some 57% of this group said that ads integrated in-game are more relevant to their interests than regular ads.
While gaming is popular with the population as a whole, advertisers looking to target young men should also be pleased with the fact that 42% of male gamers under 35 claimed that gaming is their “default” choice for entertainment. By contrast, fewer than 1 in 5 (17%) of that group said they default to watching TV shows or movies. This group also says they spend 53% of their free time gaming, compared to 22% watching video and just 12% of their time listening to music or audio.
Separate research by Nielsen also notes that some 7 in 10 Millennial gamers watch gaming video content on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch, and have an average household income of $58K.
All together, this helps paint a picture that might be different from the stereotype associated with video gamers, particularly as gamers spent $43.4 billion last year in the category.
An excerpt of the report is available to download here.
About the Data: Figures are based on an online survey of more than 2,600 consumers ages 16-74.