Market Research company Roy Morgan recently released some video game related statistics.
Here are some massive generalisations that confirm all your worst biases: old people don’t play video games that much, middle-aged people love Wii Sports and young people like Call of Duty.
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), October 2014 – September 2015 (n=3,325). Base: Australians 14+ who own at least one console game
This is kind of a weird one. As you’re probably well aware, Wii Sports was a pack-in with the Wii and, obviously, the original Wii was a dramatic success with older people. It was a dramatic success in general, which sort of makes this data a little… skewed.
Also the list refers to specific franchises as opposed to single games, which makes things ever stranger.
Apparently Mario is one of the most popular video games owned by Generation Y. Which Mario? All of the Marios? It all seems a bit strange and doesn’t really paint an accurate picture of what games people are buying and consuming.
There are a couple of other interesting statistics however, mostly around age and console game ownership.
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Aust), October 2014–September 2015 (n=15,668). Base: Australians 14+
On a surface level these are interesting statistics, albeit statistics that might play into our existing ideas of who is playing games.
A number of broader surveys have shown that older people are playing video games, but given the fact this data is focused on console games, it ignores all the mobile games that older people tend to engage with. It is what it is — the survey clearly has different goals in mind.
This was also interesting, from Michele Levine, CEO of Roy Morgan Research:
While our data shows that certain games hold more appeal to Generation X than to Gens Y and Z, this generation tends to play much less frequently than its younger counterparts. It is likely that some feel they own the games (having purchased them) but their kids actually play them; while others may be too occupied with full-time jobs and family responsibilities to indulge very often. Their high ownership of Wii Sports also begs the question: does this time-pressed generation use it as a convenient alternative to ‘real-life’ exercise?
Or are they gathering dust in cupboards.
Far more likely.
Comments
10 responses to “Old Australians Still Really Love Wii Sports. Apparently.”
working in retail these numbers don’t surprise me that much, we use to get a lot of interest in the wii/wiiu from even hospitals and care homes.
How many generation X people are in Nursing homes!!?
By care homes I mean everything from nursing homes to respite care for individuals that require a little extra help.
I had a mate that used to work for Roy Morgan and apparently their surveys are a nightmare to work with on the back end – you need to get approval to make the slightest change, so they are really behind the curve on current trends because it takes forever to get any changes to the survey approved.
Console games only means these stats are pointless for video games as a whole, and as pointed out in the article, generalising the franchises makes even what game they’re talking about pointless. Good job Roy Morgan, you released a useless pile of steaming trash.
Personally I’m 27 and don’t play a console at all anymore, PC only life here. Include the PC stats and you’d see a huge swing to games like WoW, LoL, CS:GO etc that people of different ages are playing. Average age of CS:GO player compared to CoD player would be interesting.
I think you would find that you only play casually compared to pro bejelewed playing soccer mums in term of time spent playing.
Playing a lot of a casual game still makes you a casual.
Gen X and Gen Z in our house. We used to play the Lego games together on console a lot, sometimes Mario Kart, some Wii Sports. My son has played GTA and Sims 3 but not for long. He mostly plays Naruto / WWE / Streetfighter on console. I prefer PC and started out on Sims 2 but mostly play RPG (single player) now. Just started with AC in the past year. Most of my friends think I play something like CoD or WoW. They don’t consider playing Wii Sports with their family to be gaming.
This is an embarrassingly true story.
My best mate isn’t much of a gamer, but she dips her toes in the water now and then. We are incredibly likely to check our Wii Sports age and have some rounds of golf and bowling two times a month after a drink or four.
This is sometimes broken up by Rock Band or Guitar Hero, which we basically use as a karaoke machine with guitar controller support.
Thanks for making me realise I’m old.