Nielsen has now been studying one of the largest markets in hobbies for the last nine years and it's affect on Americans, and their 2018 findings have been released. The major headline is the steady increase among the general population (13+) who consider themselves gamers. By no stretch is this tied to just console and PC; a large chunk are also tied to the increase in both markets for VR and smartphone games. Mobile gamers, which have now jumped up to 60% of the population in 2018 continues to be a huge market in the gaming industry. There are now two-thirds of the country that are considered gamers according to their findings.
There are a few other factors they believe could be affecting the rise of the video game market, one of which being the rise of eSports (as Nielsen also covers TV and digital viewership ratings), and the steady growth in viewership numbers across all eSports related events.
(dota2.com)
This content consumption can be attributed mostly to Youtube, where 69% of gamers watch game-related content, while 21% go to Twitch. Participants in their studies, who began following eSports over the last year, made up roughly 29% of the total American fan base, further showing the impact and growth of professional gaming.
Nostalgia is also factor--which can actively be seen in the gaming industry with remakes and reboots, following a trend proven successful by the film and television industries for decades.
(Argos.com)
The last bit from the report maps out a typical month where a gamer's money is spent on anything 'Gaming'-related:
(Nielsen)
The full report is downloadable here.
It'll be very interesting to see where video games take their report next year, maybe even to greater heights.
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