Report: Gaming Now Mainstream Entertainment

The Entertainment Software Association is out today with a new report about video game usage in the U.S. It's a very interesting read and discusses a variety of items including purchase intent, demographic data, online gaming activity, and which games are most popular.

I've created a number of online casual games over the past 10 years that had millions of plays a day. I was always a bit shocked at how game players (especially female players) interacted with the advertising we injected into the games.

Some of the highlights from the report include:

• The average game player is 35 years old
• 40% of game players are women, 60% are men
• 26% of gamers are over 50
• Halo 3 is the most popular video game over the past year; World of Warcraft is the most popular computer game
• 47% of online gaming is in one of these categories: Puzzle/Board/Game Show/Trivia/Card
• 41% of Americans have purchased or plan to purchase one or more games in 2008.