The eSports phenomenon in gaming is just beginning. The roots of eSports are video games that are played on computers, consoles or devices. So, how many people play video games that could be the target audience for eSports play in casinos? A study published by Pew Research in 2015 shed some light on who plays video games and attitudes toward those games. A full copy of the report can be found at pewinternet.org/2015/12/15/gaming-and-gamers.
In the main finding of the report, it found that equal numbers of men and women ever play video games, although men are twice as likely to call themselves “gamers.” About half of American adults (49 percent) “ever play video games on a computer, TV, game console, or portable device like a cellphone,” and 10 percent consider themselves to be “gamers.” A majority of American adults (60 percent) believe that most people who play video games are men—a view that is shared by 57 percent of women who themselves play video games. But the data illustrates that in some ways this assumption is wrong: A nearly identical share of men and women report ever playing video games (50 percent of men and 48 percent of women). However, men are more than twice as likely as women to call themselves “gamers” (15 percent vs. 6 percent). And among those ages 18 to 29, 33 percent of men say the term “gamer” describes them well, more than three times the proportion of young women (9 percent) who say the same.
