The NPD Group took a poll amongst American children to see just how many were interested in gaming. The company released a report dubbed as Kids and Gaming 2009 disclosing the percentage of kid gamers situated in the US. The results show that between the ages of 2 and 17, 82% or 55.7 million are noted as being gamers. From this overall total, the smallest segment was taken by the children aged between 2 to 5 and amounted to 9.7 million. The largest segment was made up by children aged between 9 and 11 with 12.4 million.
The segment of children who spend most of their time engaging in video games at 10.6 hours per week is taken by the kids aged between 12 and 14 years. As the age increases namely between 15-17, the number of hours spent in playing games also gradually decreases. These teens as well as females may reportedly spend less time playing online as well as other types of games this year as compared to last year.
“The decline in teen usage of video games is likely due to diversifying, maturing interests, which translates into stiffer competition for their mind and wallet share. In addition to competition from other areas of the entertainment space, more school work, activities, and parent-imposed time limits on gaming are factors which the data suggests may be contributing to this dip in older teen engagement,” explained Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group.
As the reports suggest, the children use 2.5 gaming systems on an average. Amongst these, kids between the ages of 9 and 11 as well as 12 and 14 all use around 3 systems or devices each on an average which amounts to the most. As the children get older, they prefer gaming on non-traditional gaming devices like PDMPs and cell phones. These are most popular among the age group of 15 to 17.