Online games aren’t just for hardcore gamers and casual players. The gaming community has expanded to include six distinct groups of players, giving marketers a new challenge to reach the growing audience, a recent survey found.
The study, Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home, by market research firm Parks Associates, Dallas, identified three new gamer segments—social gamers, leisure gamers and dormant gamers, which account for 53% of the Internet gaming population and 56% of the retail revenue, the company found.
“The gamer market has grown over the last several years and has diversified,” said Michael Cai, director of broadband and gaming, Parks Associates. “The business model is seeing more content that appeals to more gamers.”
Social gamers use gaming as a way to interact with friends; the group spends about 56 hours per month playing online games and about $27 a month on games, Parks Associates found. Leisure gamers spend slightly more time playing games (58 hours per month), but mostly on casual titles. The segment prefers challenging titles and shows high interest in new gaming services, the firm said. Dormant gamers, however, spend little time playing online games (about eight hours a month) because of work or school, according to Parks Associates. The group likes to play games with friends and family and prefers complex and challenging video games, the survey said.
The emergence of the untapped gamer market (social, leisure and dormant gamers) poses a new challenge for marketers to reach gamers, Cai said. Hardcore and casual gamers no longer make the grade when it comes to online gaming, he said.
“The market is not black and white anymore, and game marketers need to understand these finer nuances,” Cai said.
Of the six gaming segments, power or hardcore gamers represent 11% of the gamer market, the survey found. The group spends 78 hours each month playing games and about $46 per month on video or computer games on themselves or family members, it said. Incidental gamers mostly play games to relieve boredom and spend more than 20 hours a month playing online games, according to the survey. Consumers who fall into the occasional gamer category prefer puzzle, word and board games, and spend about six hours a month playing online games, the survey found.
Parks Associates surveyed 2,002 U.S. consumers 13 and older who have Internet access and play electronic games for at least one hour per month. The survey was conducted between April 24-28.
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