Mobile Gamers Now Largest American Gaming Populace

In a report released just recently by The NPD Group titled "Gamer Segmentation 2012: The New Faces of Gamers," it was stated that mobile gamers have now grown to represent the largest American gaming populace. The study consisted of 8,488 Americans from age two and up, 5,687 of which were reported as gamers.  The gamers were divided into six different categories

Core Gamers
Digital Gamers
Mobile Gamers
Family and Kid Gamers
Avid PC Gamers
Light PC Gamers

Of these groups the Mobile Gamers rose to the top of the percentage pyramid by claiming a sturdy 22 percent of the populace.  Purring them 1 percent ahead of Core Gamers, which dropped in 2 percent from last year's report. This is a 9 percent increase from last year's numbers and shows a definite change in market attitude.  (It should be noted that time required to be spent gaming on a mobile device out of total time gaming didn't quite need to be 50 percent.)

Other notable information presented in the report is based around the Digital Gamers category; defined as people who are "Engaged in a variety of gaming, from PC to mobile, console to portable, online and offline.  Their focus is on digital acquisition. Heaviest game acquirers of all segments. Also highest number of digital games and apps acquired. More so than others, they like the immediate access that digital provides."  The interesting concept presented in that definition is that of "Heaviest game acquirers."  This group grew 4 percent from last year and stands at 16 percent of the population.

With these statistics, the recent Apple- Samsung trial, and the announcement that Valve has a team devoted to hardware, it's going to be interesting to see what form of new innovation will be coming to the Mobile Gaming market.

-T