UK gamers: more women play games than men, report finds

Elizabeth R. Cournoyer August 20, 2025

139 4 minutes read

A new examination into British gaming habits has shown what many industry watchers have been watching for years: the stereotype of the teenage boy gambling by myself in his bedroom is properly and absolutely lifeless primarily based on interviews with 4,000 United Kingdom citizens, the studies assert that ladies now account for fifty two% of the gaming target market, up from 49% 3 years in the past. The examination, commissioned using the Internet Advertising Bureau, also revealed that more people over forty-four gamble on video games (27% of the audience) than children or teenagers (22%). The gamer audience reportedly stands at 33. five million Britons – 69% of the population.

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IAB chart

Distribution of game enthusiasts amongst age agencies – ninety-nine of eight- to 17-year-olds have played games within the last six months. Supply: IAB uk image: IAB

The surge in gaming amongst new areas of the populace is intently related to the upward push of the smartphone, which has made video games available to a much wider target market than dedicated consoles or PCs. Cellular puzzlers like Candy Crush Saga and Angry Birds are unfastened, intuitive, and on hand, requiring neither the gaining knowledge of time nor the fee of conventional “core” games studies. The document claims that fifty-six female interviewees over forty-four have played cellular puzzle games, which emerged as the most famous gaming style in advance of traditional movement adventures and shooters.

Furthermore, 54% of survey respondents cited their cellphone as their preferred gaming platform – 25% of whom admitted to gambling games on it each day. Smartphones were accompanied by employing computer systems (51%), consoles (45%), and drugs (44%). “The internet and cellular devices have always changed the gaming landscape,” said Steve Chester, Director of Information and Enterprise Programmes at the Internet Marketing Bureau. “They’ve delivered down the obstacles to access, making gaming more reachable and opening it up to an entirely new target market. In the beyond, you needed to exit and purchase a high-priced console and the discs on top to get a respectable revel in; now you could get simply dowd an unfastened app.”

IAB chart pinnacle online game genres among gamers in Britain supply: IAB uk photograph: IAB uk
but the stereotype that girl game enthusiasts are involved almost solely in casual cellphone titles are tested through the facts. Forty-seven female gamers polled had performed a disc-based total recreation in the final six months, and sixty-eight % had performed a web game. 56% of girl gamers have played on a console.

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In phrases of gaming time, eight-15-yr-olds play for the longest, racking up 20 hours of gaming every week. But, the common Briton spends six hours in step with weekly gambling games, which, according to the document, is “simply over eleven% of their fifty-two hours of media consumption a week – the equal share accounted for with the aid of social media and barely much less than paying attention to music (14%) “. The hours between six and 8 at night are the most famous for gaming.

Even though the public is gambling on smartphones, game enthusiasts are seemingly still gambling for longer on conventional structures. According to the take a look at, the common gamer uses 3 unique devices and searching at the percentage of gaming time, consoles account for 30%, accompanied through computer systems (24%), smartphones (21%), and tablets (18%). The most time-ingesting varieties of recreation are online-targeted titles like international of Warcraft and make contact with of obligation – those soak up forty-seven% of gaming time, compared to smartphone apps (23%) and disc-based video games (22%).

Notwithstanding the preference to circulate in the enterprise closer to digitally disbursed video games – generally, via phone, computer, or console app shops – disc-based video games are still selling. 29% of adults introduced a new recreation disc within the remaining six months, and 21% had sold a second-hand sport. The survey, entitled “Gaming Revolution” and achieved through impartial research organization Populus, additionally appeared in in-recreation marketing. Constantly a complicated proposition in console video games, wherein onscreen advertisements are often seen as invasive, the new technology of free-to-play video games has modified attitudes. Sixty percent of respondents stated they may be glad to see game ads if it makes them lose; they time-honored 1.7 advertisements each 30 minutes in an unfastened sport – twice as high as in paid games.

While “hardcore” gaming is truly nonetheless rooted in its traditional user base (gambling games taken into consideration as the most exciting media amongst adult males elderly 16-24), what the look at shows is a widening target audience who are exploring video games via new structures, thanks to the proliferation of the latest structures. The concept that a quarter of all game enthusiasts are over 45 years old may also nicely have interesting ramifications for game layout going forward.

However, consistent with the IAB, one of the most exciting discoveries via the 4,000 surveys and 20 in-intensity interviews that contributed to the findings was the immersive nature of the medium. Researchers found that, while UK gamers are gambling, they deliver their complete attention. “We had been surely amazed by how captivated clients are via the gaming surroundings; once they are gambling, they’re completely ‘in the region,'” stated Chester. “We pay attention to how all of us are constantly multi-tasking; however, taking a llookingicates that video games are unique and engaging surroundings that require people’s complete and utter awareness.”