DFC Intelligence released a new report out, tallying the world’s gaming population and what platforms they are playing on. DFC Intelligence estimates that there are 3.1 billion people who regularly consume video games. Mobile games are counted and do make up half of the market as well as being the fasting growing market. Mobile gaming is the most popular in Asia where ownership of personal computers and consoles are a rarity.
In Japan, personal ownership of computers is around 50% of households dropping down to under 30% owning two devices. When including personal tablets under the term PC, the ownership does peak above 70%, but Japan is experiencing downward trend in the PC market. In China, which makes up a quarter of the United States’ video game revenue, only legalized gaming consoles in 2015. The ownership of computers in China is similar to Japan’s. Of course, this is offset by the prevalence and popularity of internet cafes.
PC players make up 48% of gamers or 1.5 billion players. While there is significant overlap shared between PC, consoles, and mobile gaming demographics, PC gaming takes a larger slice in Europe and North America while mobile gaming is much smaller than Asia. Although Asia makes up the majority of gamers as a whole due to the vast numbers of people playing games in total. Console players only tally in at 8% of the gaming population overall, with the groups being most popular in Japan and Europe.
The largest area with a gaming population is Asia at the largest population, followed by Europe, Latin America, North America, and then the Middle East and North Africa who host the smallest gaming populations overall. The gaming world is continuing to grow, with the mobile market rapidly expanding as mobile devices are becoming cheaper and more accessible around the globe, while the PC and console communities are steadily increasing as well.