More than half of UK web users will be gamers by 2019
Research from eMarketer has forecast a boom in gaming to grip the UK by the year 2019, making up a share of around of half of web users.
Angry Birds
Across all devices, be it consoles, mobile, web browser and social media applications, UK gamers will account for 50% of internet users, a total audience size of 28m people.
Up from 24.4m people in 2015, the drive is proliferated by the adoption of mobile devices, and social networks, all of which provide substantial access to gaming networks. The news will be of concern to the traditional gaming market, the big players like Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo, all of whom are dependent on platform loyalty and sales of dedicated hardware.
To cut into this swelling of mobile gaming however, Nintendo puts forward the hybrid console the Switch, a home console also optimised for on the move gaming. eMarketer estimates that there are now 42.7m smartphone users in the UK, comprising almost four-fifths of Internet users and 64.3% of the population – more than half of these will play a digital game on said devices at least once monthly.
“Online gaming is no longer the preserve of a core demographic made up of young, tech-savvy males,” said eMarketer senior analyst Bill Fisher.
“Rising smartphone and tablet use, bolstered by social networking games, has led to greater levels of engagement across all age and gender lines. Unsurprisingly, mobile gaming is thus driving growth in this segment, an opportunity that is not lost on digital marketers.”