Millennials Spend More Time Playing Video Games Than Gen Z and Teens, New Study Finds

variety.com:

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Millennials are the largest untapped market that video game companies should be focusing on, per a new study from Fandom, which finds that the generation spends more time gaming than both Gen Z and teens.

According to fan-community platform and entertainment company Fandom’s annual Inside Gaming report, which was released Thursday, “despite teens and Gen Z spending more time gaming than they did last year, older generations of players are spending more hours per week gaming.” Compiled based on proprietary user data from Fandom.com and a global study that examines how gamer motivations and behaviors vary by generation, the report found that 52% of Millennials surveyed rank playing video games as their top interest and 40% of Fandom’s Millennial audience spends over 22 hours per week gaming, compared to only 29% of tweens.

Additionally, Fandom’s report found that “influence to purchase brands that have investments in the gaming space gets stronger with age,” as Fandom’s millennial users are at least 24% more likely to be “heavily influenced” to buy games compared to the average Fandom user.

But that doesn’t mean studios and developers should start sleeping on the younger generations: While 45% of gamers overall are spending more time gaming than they did a year ago, and Millennials are the demo playing the most of anyone, the biggest growth in overall time spent gaming vs.