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Three Billion People Worldwide Now Play Video Games, New Report Shows

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member
A new report by DFC Intelligence has revealed that, as of mid-2020, there are nearly 3.1 billion global video game consumers.

With nearly 8 billion people around the world, this means that about 40% of of our population plays video games of some form. The fastest growing segment of these consumers are those who only play games on their smartphones. This accounts for almost half of all video game consumers.

Of those nearly 3.1 billion players, only about 8% are dedicated console consumers, but this group has the highest per-user spending.

1.5 billion, or 48% of global video game consumers, are PC game consumers. It's important to note, however, that "this includes some overlap with gamers that also use console systems and mobile devices."

DFC's report also breaks down where these video game consumers live. Asia is the leading region and has 1.42 billion paying game consumers.

Europe is second with 668 million paying game consumers, then Latin America with 383 million, and then North America with 261 million.

Of those users, the following graph shows the breakdown of mobile only users. Asia consists of 53%, followed by Europe's 17%, Latin America's 11%, and MENA's 7%, and North America's 4%.

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Kagey K

Banned
These statistics are bullshit.
My sister has played 2 times angry birds on her iPhone in all her life.
Does she count as a gamer ?
Maybe?

But at the same time the guy that spent 10,000 counts the same as her.

They are both gamers, but on very different trajectories, based on this survey.
 
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Good for my end year bonus.

btw mostly all companies that focus in mobile in japan are jumping to console market (and micro transactions)

get ready for mobile games ported to ps5.
 
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Mokus

Member
That Nokia snake game, definitely was fun. And transformed many unsuspecting and bored people into "gamers".
 
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-Arcadia-

Banned
These studies always have very loose definitions of what a gamer is. If you play one skinner box, or the equivalent of Solitaire on an old PC, congrats, you're a gamah.

I suppose that's fine. They're still playing something interactive. But for our purposes, that data is almost useless.

What I'm curious about is when console manufacturers will be able to reach out to this massive base of people that at least have some familiarity with what a game is, and hook them. Imagine an install base of billions. It wouldn't matter how big your budget was, within reason. You could shoot for the sky, without today's problem of the games getting more expensive, but the number of customers staying roughly the same.
 

Aladin

Member
It is relevant. Poorer parts of the world, are used to gaming on low end hardware and mobiles. The adults in these regions see gaming as a taboo.

Imagine the number of consoles sold doesnt reach close to 300 millions, and many of them are replacements or secondary consoles. So roughly 95% of the world doesnt play games on consoles. That is why streaming, subscrption gaming, battle royale games make so much sense.
 
That is the market Xbox is trying to capture with GamePass and XCloud. Playstation will follow close behind in trying to capture this market. They'd be fools not to, the potential $$$ there is amazing, but they should be careful about leaning too hard into it. They're also gambling that these casual gamers actually want the "hardcore" experiences.
 

Aladin

Member
A movie ticket in USA costs 10$, the same movie is screened in a developing country for 2$. If you want to expand legitimate paid gaming experiences to billions of gamers, companies have to learn to do differential pricing.
If gamepass costs 120$ in USA, it should cost not more than 20$ in developing countries.
 

Vawn

Banned
Most misleading stat ever. I don't personally count someone who messed around a time or two with Candy Crush or some random Facebook game app as a gamer.
 

Bryank75

Banned
Mobile games don't count, Facebook games don't count and PC doesn't count either.... they are all the same as playing with your calculator to make words like 80085.

Streaming doesn't count either and should result in corporal punishment.
 
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Jason28

Has a tiny dick and smaller e-peen
Bullshit statistic, the same bullshit Papa Phill tell investers so they wont fire his lazy ass.
 

Rikoi

Member
Lol at this very lazy survey. Putting angry birds and GoT players into the same group is wrong and misleading.
Among these there might be also people that installed only a mobile game once and never went back to it.
 
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Kerlurk

Banned
 
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Jigsaah

Gold Member
Mobile games don't count, Facebook games don't count and PC doesn't count either.... they are all the same as playing with your calculator to make words like 80085.

Streaming doesn't count either and should result in corporal punishment.
PC Games don't count. Sir I am offended. You just wait til my butler gets here with my freshly laundered glove on a silver platter. Then we shall fisticuffs.
 

Bryank75

Banned
PC Games don't count. Sir I am offended. You just wait til my butler gets here with my freshly laundered glove on a silver platter. Then we shall fisticuffs.
I don't really mean PC gamers... they're usually fine. My bro is one and years ago I was one too.
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
Plays video games /= is a self identified gamer

Trying to unify all of gaming under one banner always seemed odd to me since it’s the one medium where the experience is overwhelmingly dictated by the hardware. You can read, listen to music, or watch television on all manner of devices.

You can not equally experience Half Life Alyx, Crusader Kings, Candy Crush, Dance Dance Revolution, or Dead Souls on every single device. A gaming PC probably comes the closest to being a universal platform but you’d have to run some serious emulation to get it to do literally everything.

Where this all matters is how games are created and marketed and the audiences are very, very different unlike other mediums.
 
When you don't have a PlayStation... it's an alternative. haha
I had a playstation 1 2 3 and 4 still have playstation 1 2 3 but sold my Playstation 4 cause most of the games for it that i play are also on the PC and it just ran better on it so yeah.
 
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LordOfChaos

Member
Yet I still hear shit like "I would never date someone who plays video games" "Can you imagine someone gaming in their 30s"

Then they go and play a mobile game and it's like, bitch that's GAMING
 
Dunno, I'd love it to be...I've been dying to play a full GT for years!
What was your last one?
GT Sport with the PS4 i bought the PS4 for that and played it but it was bare boned and no career mode and was always online and did not have much cars so i sold it and the PS4.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Gaming is absolutely what’s going on, games are goofy and fun and than there’s edgier stuff
 

Reindeer

Member
Yeah, and in my book, they don't count.

It's like my wife "plays" video games, by playing them on her phone, but give her a controller, and she walks the character straight into a corner, and wonders what's wrong, and can't get out of it. She's stuck, and I have to explain to her, she's in a corner, and has to turn around, but even after that explanation, she still can't do it.

Oh well, I guess I'm the only one that will be playing on the console. :LOL:
Exactly lol, mobile gamers aren't really "gamers". Most people who play games on a mobile device have zero interest in gaming as a hobby, they just play game here and there on their smart device to kill time.
 
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CitizenX

Banned
Mobile gaming doesn’t count

I guess that excludes Nintendo then as I would argue thats what the switch is and every conversation about it is "I can take it with me". For the record I have still never seen a switch or DS being played though i live where people drive.
 
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