Gaming Britain
A Nation United by Digital Play
Gaming Britain:
A Nation United by Digital Play
32.9 million UK game players
Non game players are actually in the minority
The message is loud and clear:
playing video games is now an
engrained and mainstream
activity in the UK, presenting a
highly engaged, varied and
appealing audience for advertisers.
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Gaming Britain is a nationally
representative report showing the
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size of the UK’s gaming audience,
how and why people play, the
frequency of play, the platforms they •
play on and a breakdown of different
demographics. It is available for IAB •
members to download free on our
website www.iabuk.net/games.
With 82% of 8-65 year olds
playing games, this medium
is too mainstream to be the
behaviour of a niche stereotype
Over 27.6 million Adults play
games
79% of Adult internet users
16 - 65 years
Over 5 million 8-15 year olds
play games
98% of Kids 8 - 15 years
This study was conducted by the IAB Games Steering Group in partnership
with Kantar Media. The Games Steering Group is the UK’s only committee
of leading experts dedicated to helping advertisers make the most of games
media, including:
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Nick Boulstridge, Electronic Arts (EA)
Rumbi Pfende, Gamehouse (formerly RealGames)
Ben Howard, GameSpot UK
James Salins, IGA Worldwide
Rich Keen, IGN Entertainment
Noam Korin, In Play Media
Tim Kimber, Microsoft Advertising
Kerry Lee, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE)
David Rose, We R Interactive
Game players are not just young men
The gaming audience is equally split male and female with 77% of people
over the age of 25 years old. Just over half of whom are in the ABC1
demographic.
49%
Female
51%
Male
25-45
44%
45-65
33%
16-24
23%
C2DE
46%
ABC1
54%
Base - All Adult Game Players: 2,396
Playing games is a highly social activity
Some 72% of adult players (16 – 65 years old) play socially - either in
person or online - while 96% of children (8 – 16 years old) play socially.
A definite weekday pattern in usage
Only mobile devices differ in usage during the week with all others peaking
during primetime (8pm – 10pm). At weekends usage is much more spread
out throughout the day.
80
Any gaming
70
56%
60
41%
40
20
10
0
68%
65%
Mobile/Tablet
51%
50
30
Without mobile
29%
24%
21%
31%
28%
22%
37%
37%
38%
35%
33%
22%
14%
11%
9%
Morning
Lunchtime
Afternoon Early Evening Mid Evening Late evening Overnight
(6am-12pm) (12pm-2pm) (3pm-5pm) (5pm-7pm) (8pm-10pm) (10pm-12am) (12am-6am)
Social Network, PC/Laptop & Games Consoles were the devices that
delivered the greatest time spent playing over a week
0-30mins
120
30mins-1hr
100
80
9%
38%
8%
26%
8%
17%
29%
60
34%
40
4%
17%
26%
33%
1-3 hrs
Over 3hrs
Avg. sessions per week
21%
68%
46%
18%
4%
7%
42%
35%
20
0
6%
32%
45%
28%
18%
Internet
Games PC/Laptop Social
Networking Browser
Console
Games
Games
Handheld
Mobile
/ Tablet
Game playing can be a time of social interaction
Gaming isn’t just done in isolation and can be a way to bring groups together.
• 72% of all game players have played games with others
• 81% of games console players have played with friends or family in person
• 54% of social networking players have played with friends or family online
or over a network
• 41% of internet browser games are played with unknown people online or
across a network
Segmenting the gaming audience
The full version of the Gaming Britain research includes an advanced
behavioural segmentation that breaks the audience down into seven different
categories. This lets you see the types of game player, the platforms they play
on and demographic information for planning purposes.
Research released September 2011
Contact info@iabuk.net for more information