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ESA: Average gamer age is 30, adult women more lucrative than teenage boys

The ESA has released a handy list of "essential facts" about the US games industry, including some startling demographic revelations.

One of the most interesting snippets is that the average age of a gamer is 30, but there's a pretty even split across age groups, with 32% under 18, 31% between 18 and 35, and 37% over 36. The average age of the most frequent games buyer is 35%; 52% of these are male and 48% female, a pretty even split.

Speaking of gender, the ESA notes that 47% of gamers are female and 53% male, and said that women aged 18 and over represent 30% of game consumers - quite a lot higher than gaming's traditional demographic, the under-18 male, at 18%.

49% of US households own a console; those that do own an average of two.

In a top 20 of best-selling games of 2011, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is number one, followed by Just Dance 3, Madden NFL 13, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Battlefield 3.

On the PC-only side, things are quite different; Star Wars: The Old Republic is top, then The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. The Sims 3 and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

There are plenty more interesting statistics in the friendly-looking PDF, which you can download here, including details of what activities we're giving up on in order to game; how online games are growing; how parents view video games; and how the industry has performed since 2001.

The ESA's data was pulled from surveys and the NPD's sales tracking.

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Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

Contributor

Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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