Survey: More than Half UK, French and German adults are gamers

A survey known as National Gamers Surveys, conducted by New Zoo this year, has claimed that more than half of UK, French and German adults are gamers.

It also found that over 153 million men and women are estimated to play consoles, casual game sites, social networks and mobile devices in these three countries combined.

It also discovered that there is no one dominant gaming platform in Europe, with gamers splitting their time between all types of devices - but they spend more money on console games.

UK leads the pack when it comes to having the highest ratio of gamers, with 68 percent of men and 59 percent of women playing games.

In Germany, 63 percent of men and 54 percent of women are gamers, while in France, 61 percent of men and 52 percent of women play games.

Interestingly, it's the French who end up spending the most money per player, averaging around £22.3 per month, which is more than the United States, where players spend an average £17.5 each month. British gamers spends £18.6 per month, while Germans spends £13.9/month.

PopCap Europe head Paul Breslin said:

"What these results tell us is that a one size fits all strategy for Europe doesn't work as there are quite different platform gaming habits, needs and expectations between France, Germany and the UK.

"This is clearly a maturing market that has by no means finished evolving. People want to play a range of different games across different platforms. From a publisher's perspective, this shows the importance of having diversity and multi-platform solutions to reach individual markets in these important regions."

Some other findings from the survey are mentioned below:

• In Europe, games are most popular in the age group between 10 and 20 years-old, with 87 percent of 10-20-year-olds in the UK, 81 percent in France and 78 percent in Germany all playing games.
• Behind the US, which spends £13.2bn per year on gaming, the biggest gaming economy is Germany (£4bn from 24m payers), followed by the United Kingdom (£3.6bn from 16.1m payers), and France (£2.8bn from 10.4m payers).
• European gamers spend more money towards gaming on console games than on casual, social or mobile gaming, with German gamers spending 34 percent of their gaming money (£4bn 2011 estimate) on console games compared to 8 percent on casual game sites, 4 percent on social networks and 8 percent on mobile games.
• UK gamers spend 44 percent of their gaming money (£3.6bn) on console games, compared to 11 percent on casual game sites, 6 percent on social networks and 10 percent on mobile games.
• French gamers spend 44 percent of their gaming money (£2.8bn) on console games, compared to 10 percent on casual game sites, 6 percent on social networks and 10 percent on mobile games.
• While the number one reason to play most games - casual game sites, social networks, gaming consoles, boxed games, and downloaded games - is to relax and unwind, the main reason European gamers play games on mobile devices is because they're bored.

The survey, conducted in March, 2011 - used data collected from 20,000 online surveys completed by consumers aged between 10-65 years in 10 countries: the US, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, Mexico and Russia.