Average Game Player Is Aged 37

TSA Staff 78 Comments

According to a report from the Entertainment Software Association, the average “game player” is aged at a rather suprising 37.  18% of gamers are under 18, 53% are aged between 18 and 49, and 29% are over 50.

More stats?  42% of gamers are women, and women aged 18 or older represent more than one third of the game playing population.

The report also highlights that purchases of digital full games, DLC, mobile apps, social gaming and subscriptions accounts for more than 24% of the industry last year, compared with 20% in 2009.  Gamers spent $25 billion on game content, hardware and accessories last year.

55% of gamer play games on their phones or handheld device.

You can read more in the PDF here, which is filled with lovely infographics.

Related stories from TSA

All the ports, announcements and release dates from the Nintendo Direct (June 2026)
Xbox Game Pass lost “millions” of subscribers from 2025’s price hike
Xbox is rethinking Project Helix amid the AI chip cost crisis
A Nintendo Direct is coming tomorrow, 9th June, for one more dose of Summer Game Fest

78 Comments

  1. Was this survey based on asking just 5 people?

    • 1200 Households were surveyed. I don’t think the women number is too high, but I guess most of them are casual.

      • I guess I just assume every gamer to be pretty hardcore like myself

      • The female gamers probably play things like angry birds, cuz I’ve never come across a hardcore ps3 girl gamer

  2. seems like a load of rubbish to me. average gamer 37 doesn’t really make sense, and 42% women? Out of all the females I know, not one plays games.

    • I thought that too, if the average gamer age was 37, that would mean just as many 50ish year olds play games as 10-20 year olds, which is obviously not true. Like I said below, it’s more like the average saddo who takes part in surveys is 37.

    • Nintendo DS says hi

      • My Dad is an avid gamer and is 63, I’m 40 and my nephew is 10 (I think) that’s 37.67 works for me.

  3. More like the the average person sad enough to take the survey was 37.

    • I think you are probably right there.

    • It’s long been known the average gamer is mid-thirties, this put it slightly higher than that

      Perhaps its all the noise the young whipper-snappers make that skews people’s thinking into believing that gaming has a much younger audience.

      • I dunno. Try going into GAME or Gamestation and looking at the average customer, or in schools or colleges, where 99% of people play games. It’s more than likely to be older gamers who go on websites and take part in these surveys.

      • Makes sense. The spectrum48 & c64 came out in 1982, this is when home gaming became pretty huge & widely accessible. (when my gaming passion began. I feel like one of the pioneers:)

  4. What about farmville? Poker? The Sims? I think there a plenty of games that attract loads of womans or ‘older people’.
    I think doing the same research without free and internet games would give a whole different outcome.

  5. Noooooooooooo!!!!! I’m one year older than the average. Ah, crap. No wait. More young ‘uns to groom. Yay!

    • You arnt 38! Perleease!

      • You thought I was seven, didn’t you? :-)

    • lol, I’m one year younger… so the average is spot on.

  6. It does seem surprising, but when you look at the wording it is “game player”, which accounts for all the iphone/android games too.
    I’m sure that if we looked at gamers as in pc/ps3/360 gamers the results would be very different.

  7. Blimey you are lost for story’s today lol.

    • Sorry I meant it is a Slow news day.

    • Actually, It has been an average news day today. And why shouldn’t they report the the results of a survey? I doubt that TSA would hold back any news just to fill any empty slots on a very slow news day as they aim to report the gaming news as soon as they find it.;)

      • Time of the month, fella? :P

      • So now were gonna get a slow news week if your right mike.

      • Actually Steven, I would agree with Fattyuk that news is a bit slow which is why there is less news on the website. And, ironically or coincidentally, it is probably down to the month like Mike said although he was referring to something completely different ;)

      • Yeah, when comparing TSA to, for example CVG, news has run as fast as treacle on tsa today.

        http://www.thesixthaxis.com/

        http://www.computerandvideogames.com/news.php?

  8. hey, i’m average. (^_^)

    • To me, you’ll always be so very speshul. :-P

      • aw thanks (^_^), you’re pretty nice too.

    • Lucky you, i’m 1 below average:(

  9. Slightly up in recent years then, possibly to do with the Wii and iOS breaking new markets… I always thought the average age was 35ish

    • yeah, i reckon the wii has skewed the average upwards a bit in the last few years.
      enough to overcome the 360 trying to skew it down. ^_^

  10. Yay.. i’m above average…. no wait… :S

Comments are now closed for this post.