91% of US Children Age 2-17 Play Video Games

[Guardsman Bass]

I thought this was interesting mostly because it showed the sheer market penetration of video games in general, be they mobile games or games on consoles:

PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, October 11, 2011 –According to Kids and Gaming 2011, the latest report from leading market research company, The NPD Group, since 2009, the population growth of kids ages 2-17 increased 1.54 percent in the U.S., while the gaming population of that age group has grown 12.68 percent. This growth in kids’ gaming population is far outpacing the growth experienced by the population of 2-17 year olds in the country.

Today, 91 percent of kids (approximately 64 million) ages 2-17 are gaming in the U.S., an increase of 9 points when compared to 2009. While the percentage of kids gaming has grown significantly across all age groups, the fastest growth has been among kids ages 2-5, with an increase of 17 points in gaming incidence when compared to 2009. The other segments driving this growth are females and teens ages 15-17.

“Year-to-date through August 2011, kids comprised 44 percent of new physical software dollar sales, representing a vitally important consumer segment for the games industry,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “Knowing how kids are spending their gaming time and dollars in both traditional and non-traditional outlets is key to staying relevant to this highly engaged audience.”

While gaming on most devices has grown for 2-17 year olds, platforms such as mobile devices and computers have experienced the most significant increases in gaming activity. For example, since 2009, gaming on mobile devices is up from 8 percent to 38 percent, while gaming on traditional portable gaming devices experienced more modest gains, up from 38 percent to 45 percent.

The impressive growth experienced on mobile devices has been driven in large part by the availability of new devices on the market such as tablets, iOS and Android-based smartphones, as well as the abundance of content for these devices in the form of free and paid apps.

Despite this growth in mobile apps gaming, in the past 3 months, kids and their parents spent more than five times as much on physical games (across devices) as they did on mobile gaming apps for smartphones and other app-capable devices.

Methodology

Data was collected via an online survey from August 1-15, 2011. (The 2009 wave was conducted from September 10-17, 2009). The survey was completed by 4,136 individuals ages 2 -17. In cases where surrogate reporting was used, mothers were asked to bring the child to the computer to answer survey questions, either with or without assistance. In order to qualify as a gamer, respondents had to report that they currently, personally play video games. Final survey data was weighted to represent the U.S. population of individuals age 2 to 17.

I bolded some particularly interesting parts.

Of course, it says it was an "online" survey. I wish they were more specific about how they collected responses, since online polls tend to self-selection issues.

[Col. Crackpot]

Thats pretty damn vague. It would have been more helpful to specify what types of games, instead of lumping in everything from Now I know my ABC'S to Gears of War. My sons are five and we own various leapfrog products. Both portable tablets and a plug in console for the TV. My wife who has a B.A. in Early Childhood Education and Child Development, has been a classroom teacher and now a director of a non-profit inner city child care and Pre-K program, keeps tight control on use. I usually defer to her on these types of things. We've found that there are many useful educational programs that teach, reading, pre-math skills and other things while being fun, engaging and helpful with fine motor skills. She's pretty strict on what they play (angry birds on daddy's phone didn't go over to well.) and how often they play. And i quite frankly can't see how flash cards on a leap frog tablet are any different than flash cards on... well... cards.

[Mr Bean]

Sorry for the aside but why did Angry Birds strike out with your wife Col. Crackpot? I would think it would teach vauable motor skills, the basics of catapult operation and some early childhood lessons on International Relations.

As for the Survey (Back on Topic) it's some what hilarious that it's only 92% but then I suspect that a true survey would show in the 70%-80% range because one always has to account for the religious and unusally poor households which could not afford or do not wish to purchase a home console or computer.

[Col. Crackpot]

Sorry for the aside but why did Angry Birds strike out with your wife Col. Crackpot? I would think it would teach vauable motor skills, the basics of catapult operation and some early childhood lessons on International Relations.

All was fine and dandy until (and I'm not making this up) they built a castle out of boxes from the warehouse store with stuffed pigs underneath them and started repeatedly hurling a plastic parakeet at them. There were allegedly shouts of 'bam that piggie!' and 'give me back those eggs you poophead!'

[SAMAS]

Yep, that's exactly the kind of stuff my brother and I did as children: Play games reenacting various TV shows and movies we saw.

[dragon]

Sorry for the aside but why did Angry Birds strike out with your wife Col. Crackpot? I would think it would teach vauable motor skills, the basics of catapult operation and some early childhood lessons on International Relations.

All was fine and dandy until (and I'm not making this up) they built a castle out of boxes from the warehouse store with stuffed pigs underneath them and started repeatedly hurling a plastic parakeet at them. There were allegedly shouts of 'bam that piggie!' and 'give me back those eggs you poophead!'

Ahh so basicily normal stuff kids do that annoy the parents. I remember building forts and having guns battles and using rocks as grenades. Luckily we were in the vacant housing area and the windows needed replacing anyway. This was in the 80's before everyone had pc's and such.

[tim31]

I remember as a child the frothing outrage over TMNT among certain interest groups. At school they were okay with us playing Turtles as long as blows were landed between the collar and the belt.

As for the influence of video games on my own children, they have a wii, but my daughter has sat up with me on occasion playing some shooter titles. I couldn't have been more proud and slightly horrified when she presented me with a fathers day card depicting various scenes from Modern Warfare, including Imran Zakhaev bleeding profusely from where his left arm used to attach to his torso while Lieutenant Price looks quite pleased with himself.

[aieeegrunt]

My daughter regularly presents me with colourful drawings of Grunts and Elites from Halo. She a little pissy that my wife and I are playing a lot of Gears and the finicky controls frustrate her. Why does Space Marine not have Co Op? Fucking idiots.