The fairer sex spending more time on interactive entertainment than in 2007, says US report
Girls are spending more time playing PC games and video games than they were last year, according to a new NPD report.
Girl Power: Understanding This Important Consumer Segment, showed how girls aged two to 14-years old
The survey uncovered what categories are poised for growth as girls continue spend time and money on traditional toys and games, but are broadening their engagement with and spending on categories such as apparel, consumer electronics, books, music, movies, and video games.
“Some very traditional play patterns still are the most popular among girls, even in this digital age,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group.
“Over 50 per cent of girls ages two to 14-years old engage with dolls, plush, and arts & crafts in a given week which is a testament to the evergreen nature of these types of activities for girls.”
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According to the report, tweens (age 9-12) are migrating to computer and video games, especially virtual world online games.
Socialisation is gearing up among the pre-teens, and the advent of interactive gaming really hits home with these girls who are looking for friends from the confines of their homes.
Young Teens (age 13-14) are also gamers, but many girls this age are also now listening to music on portable digital music players and talking/texting on their mobile phones.
“Girls, in general, are famously social creatures,” said Frazier. “The growth in use of social networking and virtual world websites by girls is a natural extension of this core value which needs to be recognized by manufacturers who count girls as primary market for their goods and services.”
Comments
Re: Duh.
Well, no freaking kidding. Most gamers have been aware that the female segment has been steadily growing for years. It the media and marketing people who seem to be consistently shocked by this.
Hey, here's some breaking news for you. Girls 15 and up love video games, too. Especially those of us who grew up playing them way back in the 80s.
Re: Re: Duh.
Through playing mmorpgs over the last few years i have noticed the steady increase in the male to female ratio in these games, more intrestingly though is the change in how people react when realising that a player is female.
In the past a lot of abusive and sexist comments would start flying around pretty much unchallenged, however even though the comments still crop up from time to time from what i have seen the people that make them quickly get shot down by others.
Another thing that i have noticed is that in hierarchical structures within games such as guilds it is female gamers that are the ones that tend to be guild leader or are in some way linked to the top tiers of the hierarchical structure.
So rather than just stating that girls play games, which we already know it would be much more intresting to see to sociological side of this.
Re: Re: Re: Duh.
Since when is an american report stating the obvious newsworthy here in the UK?
Sure, its fantastic that somebody got research funding in these tough times, but I don't see you linking to the flaming pop-tart experiments, or yet another expose of what bears do in the woods.
Girls play computer games, we also break wind, do mathematics, work, and wait for it Vote! If you are that stuck in the past, you may be interested to know that the world is round as well....
Now can I get a research grant to look at exactly how condascending the comment "Girls, in general, are social creatures" is.
Duh.
Wait...what? Girls play games? OMG! and I thought I was the only one *rolls eyes* Please, give me a break! That money could of been spent on cancer research or something.
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