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Pew's survey shows that video games are growing as a mainstream leisure time activity across the country. A full 49 percent of Americans now report that they "ever" play video games on a computer, game console, or portable device like a cell phone. While gaming still isn't nearly as universally enjoyed as more mass-market entertainment like TV and movies, that's a big increase from the medium's generally child-focused niche a couple of decades ago.

The proportion of the population that says it "ever" plays video games is roughly equivalent across gender, racial, and income lines. But the roughly 20 percent sliver of game players that refer to themselves as "gamers" (people who "describe themselves as a fan of gaming or a frequent game-player," according to the survey wording) looks very different from the larger world of game players and from those that don't play games at all.

For instance, men and women are almost equally likely to play games at all, according to the survey, with 50 percent of men and 48 percent of women saying they play. But men are much more likely to apply the "gamer" label to themselves: 15 percent of men versus 6 percent of women. That difference in self-identification may explain why 60 percent of all respondents thought most people who play video games are men, even though the survey's topline results don't really bear this out.

Across income groups, those making less than $30,000 a year were the least likely to report they played games (only 46 percent saying so). But those low-income respondents were also the most likely to describe themselves as "gamers," with 13 percent using the label. Compare that to the highest income group (making $75,000 or more a year), where 52 percent said they play games, but only 7 percent said they were gamers.

Generational differences among gamers may explain some of that income split. While 67 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 play games, only 25 percent of those aged 65 and over do the same. Those generational differences are even more pronounced among self-described gamers: 33 percent of the 18 to 29 age group and only two percent of those 65 and over used the label. It will be interesting to see if that generational split persists as younger gamers get older or if some millennials will eventually "grow out" of calling themselves gamers.

The three racial groups broken out in the survey results—people who identify as "white," "black," or "hispanic"——all showed similar rates of overall game playing: 48 percent, 53 percent, and 51 percent, respectively. Non-white respondents were more likely to call themselves gamers, though: only seven percent of white respondents used the label compared to 11 percent of black and 19 percent of hispanic respondents. Self-identified gamers were also proportionally slightly more common in urban locales compared to suburban and rural areas.



Pew also found self-described gamers were much more likely than non-gamer players to have positive views of the medium, and both groups were much more likely to see games positively than non-players. For instance, 53 percent of gamers thought most games were not a waste of time, while only 35 percent of non-"gamer" players and 13 percent of non-players agreed. If gaming is going to truly become mainstream, the industry will have to work hard to convince that 87 percent of non-players that time spent gaming isn't a waste.

Even among the most serious gamers, though, it seems games are not always the most-loved form of leisure. Only 34 percent of self-described gamers felt that most games were "a better form of entertainment than TV." That means about two out of three of the most dedicated gamers think games are generally less compelling than just sitting back and watching a TV show. That's a pretty serious indictment of the medium's relative value from those that say they care about it the most.

The most important takeaway from all of these numbers is that the term "gamer" can apply to two very different sets of people. Those who self-identify with the gamer label both look different and think quite differently from the larger group of people who simply play games, and both groups differ from the slim majority of US adults who still don't play video games at all. Keep all that in mind the next time you want to debate what it really means to be a gamer these days.