45% of 50+ aged people are playing games. Dead Island 2 reached 1M copies. The GameDiscoverCo shared the geography of PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam users.
This week:
- AARP: 45% of 50+ aged in the US are playing games
- Dead Island 2 reached 1M copies sold
- The GameDiscoverCo: The geography of PlayStation, Xbox & Steam users (2023)
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AARP: 45% of 50+ aged in the US are playing games
Almost 7,800 people took part in the survey.
- The number of 50+ aged people playing games hasn’t increased much from 2019 (from 44% to 45% in 2022). But the engagement grew by 40% – from 8.5 hours per week to 12 hours on average.
- More than 80% of 50+ people are using mobile devices to play games. 30% of them are playing only on smartphones.
- The most common gaming partner for 50+ aged is their grandchildren. 53% have mentioned that they’re playing video games with grandkids.
- 50+ gamers do prefer puzzles, card games, and word games.
- The percentage of paying users aged 50+ grew from 27% in 2019 to 38% in 2022. But the average spending decreased from $64 in 2019 to $49 in 2022.
- 47% of spending in 2022 was on content, 38% on hardware, and 15% on accessories.
- 62% of people age 40 to 49 are playing games, which means that there will be more 50+ aged gamers in the future.
- The majority of 50+ aged gamers are playing games to unwind and relax (54%); to do a mental activity (46%); for joy (39%); to receive new emotions (23%).
Dead Island 2 reached 1M copies sold
- It took a game 3 days to reach this milestone.
- In the UK, the game becomes the third largest physical release after the Hogwarts Legacy and Resident Evil 4 Remake.
- Launch retail sales of Dead Island 2 are half of what RE4 Remake achieved.
The GameDiscoverCo: The geography of PlayStation, Xbox & Steam users (2023)
PlayStation
- 37.2% of PlayStation’s audience is based in the US.
- Europe is the second biggest market for PlayStation. The ratio “number of consoles owned to the population” in Europe is similar to the US.
- Saudi Arabia (4.5%) and UAE (1.2%) are quite huge in terms of user base. Great Resident Evil 4 Remake sales in the region show the importance of Arabic language localization.
- GameDiscoverCo is highlighting that Hong Kong and China are responsible for 3.7% of the audience. But due to the grey import, the exact number of consoles is unknown. For example, in The Callisto Protocol users from China are in top-3 by volume.
Xbox
- The US is responsible for 40.6% of all users. The second region is the UK – 7.9% of all users.
- Xbox is very popular in Brazil (3rd region in sales, 6.9% of users from there) and Mexico (4.8% of users, 6th place).
- The Microsoft console is still struggling in the Japanese market. Only 1.1% of all Xbox users are from Japan – less than in Colombia.
Steam
- Steam is the most international platform. The US doesn’t have such a big difference from other countries (13.7% of users are from the US).
- China is second by volume of users (12.3%); Russia is third (9.7%).
- The GameDiscoverCo is suggesting keeping attention to Southeast Asia regions – 4.7% of the audience are in Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.
