(Bram Van Oost via Unsplash)
It’s no secret that video games are a huge part of the entertainment industry worldwide. With millions playing video games globally, there’s bound to be various groups and communities enjoying video games.
According to Variety, the largest demographic that video game companies should be paying attention to are millennials. Generations Z and Alpha are actually playing less video games than their older counterparts.
While the younger groups were playing more video games a year ago, the statistics from entertainment company Fandom are showing that millennials are spending more time per week playing video games. They are also expressing more of an interest in it as a hobby than the rest of gamers.
According to a compilation of data retrieved by Fandom and a global study that analyzes how gamer motivations and habits vary by generation, the report found that 52% of millennials surveyed consider playing video games as their top interest and 40% of Fandom’s millennial audience spends over 22 hours per week playing video games, compared to only 29% of tweens.
On top of that, Fandom’s report found that the “influence to purchase brands that have investments in the gaming space gets stronger with age,” as the Millennial Fandom users are at least 24% more likely to be “heavily influenced” to purchase games compared to the average Fandom user.
Gaming studios and developers are urged to keep an eye out on the younger generations: While 45% of gamers overall are spending more time gaming than they did a year ago, and millennials are the demographic playing the most of anyone, the largest growth in overall time spent gaming as opposed to last year was seen among teens and tweens, up 48% and and 63%, respectively.
Even though Millennials are a huge portion of video game markets, Gen Z and Gen Alpha gamers are just as avid gamers. The biggest preferences for Gen Z and Millennials are character and storyline, with well-developed and constructed stories; while younger gamers are more into competitive online games that require teamwork and strategy.