Well who'd have thunk it? The average gamer isn't a young homophobic teen, but someone in their mid 30s, with a job and a steady relationship. It wasn't long ago that the world was shocked to learn that the average gamer was 31 years old, now they're 35. What's going on?!
“Do you hear that dear? We're above average gamers.”
While obviously I'm being sensationalist here, it's interesting that with the trend of increasing older and younger gamers coming on board thanks to social network and mobile gaming, the average age of a gamer has continued to grow. However, the gender of the average gamer is completely up for grabs, as according to this study of 2,000 gamers by Pixwoo (via Wired), it could be male or female.
“Not only are women just as likely to be gamers as men, but we are talking about fully grown adults who work, have a family and are in a relationship,” reads the study.
That said, the study did suggest that gaming can be a point of tension in some relationships, with 15 per cent of those quizzed, suggesting that they had broken up with a partner thanks to an issue related to gaming. On the other hand though, almost a third of those polled said that they had made a real life friend from their online gaming interactions.
Kitguru Says: So where do you guys fit in this idea of an “average” gamer? I'm younger by a fair chunk, but I have the job and relationship down. And I've had fights with my girl about gaming… but only because she finds it funny to randomly wander in and hit the escape key.
FarmVille and Angry Birds are not what I consider games. They are just pass times. I imagine if you looked at proper games on console and PC you would find that its majority male and probably average 20-25 years old maybe less