Nearly 70% of Americans Play Video Games, Mostly on Smartphones (Study)

By Brian Crecente

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – About 67% of Americans, or roughly 211 million people, play video games on at least one type of device, with more than half of those who game, playing on multiple platforms, according to a new study released by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research.

The study, which is based on an online survey of 5,000 people, also showed that 90 percent of those play games on their , tablets, or both.

“Over the past several years, mobile gamers have been a key segment for the games industry to target with marketing spend because of the sheer size and diversity of the audience, as well as the amount of time invested in gaming on this platform,” said Dr. Heather Nofziger, head of consumer research at EEDAR. “While there continues to be opportunity for growth in mobile, the real potential for growth lies with getting the other groups increasingly involved in gaming across platforms that they may not have considered using for gaming in the past.”

Personal computers were the second most popular gaming platform, with 52% of gamers playing on a laptop or desktop .  Consoles, the third most popular gaming platform in the U.S., with 43%, followed by handheld systems with 9%.

The study also found that gaming takes up about 16% of U.S. gamers’ weekly leisure time, totaling an average of 12 hours per week. Gamers spend about the same amount of time on video games as they do consuming other forms of entertainment content each week.  Other popular uses of downtime include internet browsing, listening to music, and using social media.