Gamers who can’t seem to get enough of their favorite pastime can now take comfort in knowing they’re in good company across the globe, as a new report reveals that nearly half of the planet’s population lives with a Or play other video games in various forms. While some previous studies have attempted to identify the most popular video game franchises or platforms, this study examines the total number of people that make up the global consumer gaming market.
The gaming industry has come a long way since the first commercial video game hit the market in 1971 in the coin-operated cabinet Computer Space. In the more than 50 years since that hulking machine first wowed gamers with its simple graphics and clunky controls, the gaming industry has undergone a revolution, and consumers can now enjoy video games on a variety of devices. When many people think of video games, dedicated gaming PCs and consoles are the first things that come to mind, but the totality of the global gaming industry ranges from the latest hardcore console releases to comfortable video games and titles designed for the mobile market.
According to a new report from industry analysts at DFC Intelligence, which studies the gaming industry with the goal of providing “analysis and forecasts that reflect market reality rather than hype and wishful thinking,” there are currently 3.7 billion gaming consumers worldwide. While this figure may seem surprising on the surface, accounting for less than half of the planet’s total population, it does come with some caveats. While there are nearly 4 billion gaming consumers on the planet, the report notes that only about 300 million “hardware-driven consumers” are responsible for driving demand for dedicated gaming PCs and consoles such as Sony’s popular PlayStation 5.
The report also highlights other interesting findings regarding the composition of the consumer games market. The study revealed that while hardware-driven console gamers are concentrated in North America and Europe, in terms of where players spend their screen time, it is actually mobile gamers who are “representative of the global population”. For developers who release games primarily for PCs and consoles, this suggests that there is a huge untapped market of potential gamers waiting to enter, with the report stating that there is “definitely an opportunity to expand the video game hardware business.”
This good news about the growth of the global gaming market comes just a few months after another report came to some depressing conclusions, many of which actually play games and find that self-identified gamers are more likely to be racist and sexist. As more and more people around the world begin to embrace the love of gaming that has brought joy to many over the past half-century, hopefully they too can help bring some much-needed positivity and change the worst aspects of gamer culture .