Study Says “Most Gamers Only Play 5 Hours Per Week”

It seems that the above stereotype is slowly fading. In fact, a recent study has shown that gamers don’t sit in front of their consoles for monster gaming marathons.

The study showed that, on average, most of them only played up to five hours a week, and when put into a percentage context (168 hour week divided by 5 hours of gaming), only 8.4% of their week actually consisted of video game playing. A joint study conducted by the ELSPA and the ISFE also showed that what most gamers were originally thought to be doing with their time (gaming) has drastically changed.

A whopping 76% of European gamers spent less than five hours a week indulging in their hobby, and a meager 8% of the European market invested more than sixteen hours a week into furthering their gaming skills. The study even went as far as giving an estimated number of how many people consider themselves gamers in England. That number? A staggering third of all the United Kingdom adults. On the English side of the study, only 7% invested more than sixteen hours a week, with 77% playing less than five hours.

[Source: MCVUK]

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  • vancel

    eehhh idc about the article, but i would say that gamers spend 5 hours a week, is bullshit, i have a lots of friends and lots people that i know, they play 16 hours a day every day! now this article most change the name to, gamers who have kids and a wife… play 5 hours a week, or people whit 2 or 3 jobs play 5 hours a week… :) there, big diferences, :)..

  • Lathspell

    There is an error:

    “if we put in percentage context”, the correct calculus is 2.98% (It’s 5 hours divided by 168 hours week, then we multiply by 100)

    greetings…. ;-)

  • http://www.ripten.com Chad Lakkis

    Let’s hire this guy. Math makes my head hurt.

    Thanks for the comment.

  • anon

    In the gaming world we call these people, ‘casuals.’

    They often play games like Halo, MW2, Wii-Sports, Farmville, bejewled, etc and then call themselves “gamers.”

    This is the equivalent of turning on the TV every once in a while to watch the ads/commercials and saying you are an ‘avid TV watcher.’

    As a long-term gamer of many genres this sickens me a little bit.

  • rick

    This article, or the study, is kind of pointless. Sure, this particular study says that “gamers are playing less”, but that doesn’t tell us much. Did you compare the same focus group for this study as prior studies that state gamers are playing more hours a week? If not, this study shouldn’t be used as evidence that gamers have decreased the amount of time they play per week.

    What if the gaming audience has expanded due to things like Facebook, casual gaming, handheld gaming (iPhone, iTouch), and that five hour average actually represents an increase in a group that didn’t previously game?

    Unless you’re comparing apples to apples, headlines from studies like this can be misleading. In fact, if you click through to the study, it states that gaming now appeals to a much wider audience. I wouldn’t take the results as some sort of “gosh, gamers are playing less” eye-opener.