A study by the Federal Association of Interactive Entertainment Software (BIU) has revealed new statistics about the age of German gamers. According to the survey, the average age has noticeably increased over the past few years. Especially among those over 50, many gamers have joined.
Computer games have often been dismissed as pointless and silly children’s play. Only nerds and childish clowns would indulge in such things; real adults have serious and dignified hobbies or belong to respectable clubs!
However, if we can believe the study by the Federal Association of Interactive Entertainment Software, it is not only children and young adults who play games more often.
BIU Study – The average gamer is over 30
As recently as 2011, the average age of German players was 31 years. But just six years later, the average gamer in the Republic is already 35.5 years old. The reason for this is the significant increase in players over 50. They now make up a quarter of all players and represent 8.7 million gamers, the largest age group.
The reason for the high number of older gamers is, according to the BIU, that games have now firmly established themselves as everyday media. In addition, there are now simply many players from the early days who, as young people, played in the 80s and are now over 50 and often still gamers.
Gamers in Germany – More than half are female
A total of 34.1 million Germans reportedly play at least occasionally. This corresponds to 46 percent of the total population. Of the German players, 53 percent are male, 47 percent are female. All these figures resulted from a representative survey by the BIU of 25,000 surveyed citizens.
The large number of players is also fueling the market. In the past year, a total of 2.13 billion euros were generated in Germany from games for PC, console, handheld, smartphone, and tablet, as well as fees for online networks like PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold.
What do you think of the BIU’s figures? Are you also one of the many over-50 gamers? And how do you think the increasing age of gamers will affect the game design of upcoming titles? Will there soon be special games for seniors? Let us know in the comments!
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