Did you know that approximately half of gamers are female and the average age of a player in the US is actually 48 years old? Gaming is definitely not the same world it used to be! It’s not limited to PS3s or the Xbox anymore, many gamers have taken to growing their crops and building a family of crime on games like Farmville and Mafia Wars on sites like Facebook.
Facebook dominates as the top social gaming location with 83% of weekly gamers playing on the site according to eMarketer, and by 2012 social gamers will represent approximately 40% of social users – up from 30% reported in 2009. So how can companies use this to their advantage? Just over half of the gamers questioned said that they actually noticed branding in their virtual games – such as through sweepstakes, offers and surveys.
An estimated 47 million people played social games in the US in 2009 – that number is projected to increase to 79 million by 2012 (ThinkEquity LLC, 2010) . It’s not something that you should ignore and figure is for kids only. With the average age of a US player being 48, social gaming is something to take serious. Gaming definitely has a hold on us.
Article Written By: Emma Loggins
