Non-gamers largely unaware of Switch and Scorpio

Nielsen’s US Games 360 Report 2017 has found that non-gamers still remain largely unaware of some video games hardware.

Among the general population, only 22 per cent of people have even heard of the Nintendo Switch and only 11 per cent the Xbox Scorpio. In contrast, 69 per cent of people are aware of the PS4 and 61 per cent the Xbox One.

Even among those aged 13+ who identify as gamers, only 29 per cent heard of Switch and 14 per cent of Scorpio.

These numbers drop even further for non-gamers – seven per cent for Switch and three per cent for Scorpio. This latter group, however, is still relatively aware of the big hitters, with 52 per cent aware of the PS4 and the 41 per cent of the Xbox One.

Note that the survey was conducted in Q1, meaning that the numbers may have improved following the early success of Switch and the reveal of further Xbox Scorpio details, which until recently had been very scarce.

Indeed, expect the situation to completely change once Microsoft’s Xbox Scorpio official reveal arrives and the marketing begins to kick in.

The numbers also suggest that there’s room for both PS4 and Xbox One to grow, as a decent wedge of gamers have still not heard of the machines. Indeed, some purchase intent data is included, with 21 per cent of gamers intending to buy a PS4, 17 per cent an Xbox One,16 per cent a Switch, 15 per cent a PS4 Pro and 13 per cent a Scorpio.

The survey also found that 69 per cent of the general population prefer to buy physical games. Among PC gamers, however, the numbers swing the other way, with 75 per cent preferring digital.

47 per cent of respondents said they still preferred to game on consoles, with 26 per cent choosing mobile and 27 per cent PC.

Respondents also claimed that their console time is evenly split between gaming and other uses (such as streaming video). Of the 50 per cent of the time spent gaming, 28 per cent of this was online gaming and 22 per cent offline.

You can read the full report here.