Do you play PC games for more than 5 hours each week?
If so, then you are officially a “heavy core” gamer. At least, that’s according to a new report from the NPD Group called “Understanding PC Gaming: 2014”.
That report revealed a number of interesting characteristics about PC gamers and the PC gaming industry. I’ve gone through the hard part of reading the report and summed up the important points below:
-37% of U.S. men and women over the age of 9 currently play PC games for an average of 6.4 hours each week
-Gamers were separated into three different categories of players
-Heavy Core gamers play “core” PC games for five hours or more per week
-Light Core PC gamers play “core” PC games for less than five hours per week
-Casual gamers play non-core games
-“Core” gamers had to play certain categories of games, including Action/Adventure, Flight, MMOs, Racing, Fighting, RTS, RPGs, FPS, or sports games. Uhh, what did the non-core gamers play?
-Casual gamers make up 56% of all PC gamers while Light Core gamers make up 24% and Heavy Core gamers make up 20%
-Despite making up the smallest segment of the demographic, Heavy Core gamers spend “significantly higher number of hours” gaming in an average week. They’ve also spent twice as much money as casual gamers on games in the past three months.
-51% of PC gamers are men, while 49% are women
-The average PC gamer is older than most expected: 38 years old
-They also tend to be affluent and have an average household income of $69,000
-Heavy Core and Light Core gamers are mostly men, while Light Core gamers are mostly women
Methodology
The results of this study are surprising for many people: PC gamers are half women and half men? The average PC gamer makes $70,000 per year? Where did they get this data?
Here’s the methodology from this study:
NPD conducted an online survey between June 2 and June 16, 2014. 6,225 people filled out that survey. All of those people were over 9 years of age.
Those who qualified as “PC gamers” had to indicate they were “currently playing video games on a personal computer or Mac”.
How reliable is an online survey that included a few thousand people? I can’t answer that question. But I want to see more stats like this in the PC gaming industry.
