EEDAR report finds typical male gamer spends big on social games

A new report form EEDAR suggests the majority of mobile game "whales" are young men who regularly play lots of video games.

EEDAR's latest study found that while women make up 65% of all mobile gamers, 66% of whales - the top 5% of spenders on microtransactions, largely responsible for all income - are men.

Furthermore, slightly more men purchase items at all - 53% of all male players pay, while 47% of all female players do.

The average age of a whale is 30, younger than average for payers, non-payers and in general for mobile games.

Whales spend up to 11.8 hours playing mobile games on average per week, while payers and non-payers both spend less than five hours each.

Interestingly, whales were found to be big gamers in general, spending over 26 hours per week on video games in general.

What makes all this particularly interesting - and amusing - is that in discussion of social, mobile and freemium games, angry commenters often deride these kinds of entertainment as not for "real gamers" - presumably young men with a passionate interest in gaming.

Delightful. An infographic with some further information is below.