The Average Aussie is a Gamer!
Greetings, people! Or robot, if you aren’t a human.
I’ve decided that this site needs content. So, I’m going to start writing posts every week to please our ever desiring audience. Whoever that is, I’m not sure… Anyhow!
I want you to think about something for me. Over the past few years especially, the media and ‘child well-being’ groups have been calling for video games to be banned due to bad content and for them being the supposed cause of violence in teenagers. What they want, is for all video games no matter what genre to be banned in Australia. That means preventing adults from buying and playing video games too.
Let’s look at the research done here, by a creditable source other than the media. According to a study done by Bond University last year (2013), approximately 70% of all Australians play video games. Games like these, normally associated with young people under 25, are now being played by people of many ages. The average of these gamers being aged around 32 years old.
It doesn’t stop there. 9 in 10 households have some form of interactive entertainment, regardless of the model of console (let’s not get into the console war here). Even 40 – 60 year old men and women play video games, with that age bracket representing the largest group of gamers in Australia. People over 50 account for 20% of all gamers. Bet you never knew that, ‘ey?
One of the arguments against video games is that it is anti-social, and that games are mostly played by people under 18 that are being brainwashed into thinking that violence is the way of life. Well, that’s wrong.
76% of video gamers are over 18. Adults continue to form the vast majority of gamers in Australia, with the average gamer now aged 32 years old. This aligns closely with the average age of the Australian community which, according to recent ABS census data, is 37 years old.
This, with the fact that over ~80% of parents play video games with their kids to connect with them and have fun, completely disproves the argument for the brainwashing of children.
So when people tell you that kids are being brainwashed and that games are destroying our way of life, show them this. I’ll leave the link to the article at the bottom of this post.
Once again, thanks for reading. Leave a rating!
This is the Festologist, signing off.