https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gamestop-video-games-teens-194314647.html
Teenage boys love video games. Nowhere is that better illustrated than in Piper Jaffray's latest survey, Taking Stock with Teens, which helps us non-teens better understand teens' consumer spending habits.
According to the survey, teenage boys spend 14% of their budgets on video games. That's more than anything else outside of life necessities like food and clothing. Free-to-play games like the incredibly popular "Fortnite" and, more recently, "Apex Legends," are also helping to capture new gamers, and, surprisingly, getting more players to pay for premium games.
What's more, 60% of all teens teens said they now prefer downloading their games to buying physical media, versus 55% this time last year and 45% the year before, which means big benefits for game publishers. But it also spells serious trouble for the likes of video game retailer GameStop (GME).
Gaming is only getting bigger
In its survey, Piper Jaffray spoke with 8,000 members of GenZ in the U.S., the cohort of people born between 1997 and 2012 who make everyone else on the planet feel geriatric by comparison. The teens said they spend $2,600 per year, which works out to $77 billion if stretched across the entire teen population of the U.S.
Teen boys in particular spent the most on games, while teen girls spent 1% of their budget on video games. That's in stark contrast to the gender breakdown of gamers across the age spectrum, which, according to a study by gaming industry research firm Statista, shows that gamers are 55% male and 45% female.
According to Piper Jaffray analyst Mike Olson, the difference might have to do with the age of the respondents. Women tend to play games on mobile platforms, Olson said, and mobile gamers tend to be older, which is why the teen survey shows gaming skew so heavily toward males.
Interestingly, while free-to-play games were once seen as a potential threat to the established premium games market, the Piper Jaffray survey shows that free-to-play titles could spur teens to actually spend more on paid games.
I rarely buy physical copies anymore. I actually think I'm completely done with physical media for games myself, outside of retro stuff.
Some good data from that survey overall.
Teenage boys love video games. Nowhere is that better illustrated than in Piper Jaffray's latest survey, Taking Stock with Teens, which helps us non-teens better understand teens' consumer spending habits.
According to the survey, teenage boys spend 14% of their budgets on video games. That's more than anything else outside of life necessities like food and clothing. Free-to-play games like the incredibly popular "Fortnite" and, more recently, "Apex Legends," are also helping to capture new gamers, and, surprisingly, getting more players to pay for premium games.
What's more, 60% of all teens teens said they now prefer downloading their games to buying physical media, versus 55% this time last year and 45% the year before, which means big benefits for game publishers. But it also spells serious trouble for the likes of video game retailer GameStop (GME).
Gaming is only getting bigger
In its survey, Piper Jaffray spoke with 8,000 members of GenZ in the U.S., the cohort of people born between 1997 and 2012 who make everyone else on the planet feel geriatric by comparison. The teens said they spend $2,600 per year, which works out to $77 billion if stretched across the entire teen population of the U.S.
Teen boys in particular spent the most on games, while teen girls spent 1% of their budget on video games. That's in stark contrast to the gender breakdown of gamers across the age spectrum, which, according to a study by gaming industry research firm Statista, shows that gamers are 55% male and 45% female.
According to Piper Jaffray analyst Mike Olson, the difference might have to do with the age of the respondents. Women tend to play games on mobile platforms, Olson said, and mobile gamers tend to be older, which is why the teen survey shows gaming skew so heavily toward males.
Interestingly, while free-to-play games were once seen as a potential threat to the established premium games market, the Piper Jaffray survey shows that free-to-play titles could spur teens to actually spend more on paid games.
I rarely buy physical copies anymore. I actually think I'm completely done with physical media for games myself, outside of retro stuff.
Some good data from that survey overall.
