Study Finds Some Kids Spending More Time Gaming

Posted on October 16, 2007

GameSpot reports that a new study from the NPD Group found that 1/3 of kids are spending more time playing games than they did a year ago. Does that mean the other 2/3rds are spending about the same amount of time gaming as last year or less time?

Of the nearly 3,500 children between the ages of 2 and 17 that the NPD surveyed, one-third responded that they are spending more time playing games than they did a year ago. As of press time, an NPD representative had not returned GameSpot's request for comment on how the habits of the remaining two-thirds had changed.
The report also found that PCs are the primary gaming platform for kids, with children starting to game on the system at age 6, and continuing through the age of 17, the longest stretch of time of any gaming system measured. According to the NPD, the "gaming lifecycle" begins with kid-focused systems.
As boys get older, they migrate to plug-and-play TV games, then previous-generation consoles and handhelds. At age 10, they move to cell-phone gaming and the current crop of systems from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. On the other hand, girls tend to leave gaming behind as they get older.
NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement that the switch from casual to core gamer happens between the ages of 6 and 8, which suggests that this span of time is "a critical age at which to capture the future gamers of the world."

Kids in the 12-17 year range spend about ten hours each week playing video games according to the study. A press release about the study can be found here on the NPD Group's website.