U.S. gaming landscape
Comscore found that 62% of U.S. adults play games, representing a growing portion of media consumption.
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In 2023, Americans spent 45 billion hours on gaming sites and apps. In comparison, they spent 1.6 billion in movie theaters, 62 billion hours on social media, and 201 billion hours watching Live+ television.
Of course, there is significant overlap in time spent among these activities. One example is the rise of transmedia movie and television adaptations of gaming properties Since 2021, the top five highest grossing film adaptations of gaming franchises grossed a collective .09 billion.
Demographically, 49% of gamers in the U.S. are millennials while Gen Z accounts for 13% of players. This means roughly two thirds of adult gamers are 45 and younger. This somewhat unsurprising given that millennials are a larger generation overall than Gen Z and the survey did not include minors.
In term of income, U.S. gamers are less affluent on average than the broader U.S. population. According to Comscore, 20% of gamers earned a household income of over 0,000 per year. In comparison, the U.S. census reports 37.5% of Americans earned over 0,000 annually. However, this is expected given that gamers are younger (and earlier in their careers) than average.
Additionally, Comscore found U.S. gamers are highly engaged across the three major platforms — PC, console and mobile. Over 75% of these gamers played on more than one of these platforms. Moreover, two out of every five U.S. gamers played on all three platforms regularly.
Ad implications
U.S. gamers’ multi-platform habits pose a challenge — and an opportunity — for brands that want to reach them.
In partnership with programmatic, blended ad solutions platform Anzu, Comscore highlighted unique opportunities for brands to reach players. With both blended ads and more traditional rewarded in-game ads available, marketers have several options to consider.
According to the research, about two-thirds of gamers said advertisements either positively or neutrally impacted their experience. Both primarily mobile (75%) and console players (75%) were more likely to agree than PC players (64%). In fact, about a third of players said product placement made the experience “more real.”
The research also includes a case study from Comscore about the brand lift driven by in-game blended advertising. The full report is available now.
