Time Spent Playing Video Games Continues to Rise

October 26, 2021

This article is included in these additional categories:

Boomers & Older | Cross-Media & Traditional | Demographics & Audiences | Videogames | Youth & Gen X

NPDGroup Video Game Playing Trends 2019 2021 Oct2021

The video gaming industry continues to grow, with more than half of American homes having a gaming console, and 3 in 10 planning to buy one in the next year. Despite seeing slower growth in Q2 2021 than the previous quarter, gaming remains a popular pastime, per the latest data [press release] from The NPD Group. 

About 3 in 4 (76% of) Americans have spent time playing video games this year. While this is a slight decrease over the 79% of Americans who played video games last year, it remains higher than the portion who were gaming in 2019 (73%).

Those Americans who are gaming are doing so more than ever. Likely as a result of the pandemic, time spent gaming jumped from an average of 12.7 hours per week in 2019 to 14.8 hours per week in 2020. Even as restrictions are lifted and society heads back out into the world, the growth continues. Respondents report spending an average of 16.5 hours per week with video games this year.

While it’s no surprise that younger age groups like Gen Z enjoy video games, older adults are spending more time gaming, with most choosing to play games on their smartphones. Last year, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) revealed that older consumers (ages 55-64) accounted for 9% of online gamers, and The NDP Group shared that adults ages 45-54 spent 59% more time and 76% more dollars with gaming than they had the previous year.

Per this recent data, three-quarters of adults ages 44-64 played video games for about 16 hours per week this year. This is a dramatic increase from the 69% who played approximately 12 hours per week in 2020 and the 65% who played for approximately 9 hours per week in 2019.

Read more here.

About the Data: Findings based on a survey of 5,000 people ages 2 and older.

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