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Casual games developer PopCap has revealed that over half of all adults in the UK, France and Germany are gamers.
PopCap, which has recently been bought by games giant EA, surveyed gamers throughout Europe and discovered that in the UK, 68 per cent of men and 59 per cent of women play games. Similar numbers were found in Germany (63 per cent of men, 54 per cent of women) and France (61 per cent of men, 52 per cent of women).
When it came to spending, the firm discovered that the French had the most cash to splash, spending an average of £22.30 per month, compared to £18.60 in the UK and £13.90 in Germany.
The survey, conducted by Newzoo, also suggested that there was no single dominant gaming platform in Europe, with gamers dividing time between all types of devices (such as mobile, casual, PC, console). However, they were found to spend the most money on console games.
“What these results tell us is that a one size fits all strategy for Europe doesn’t work as there are quite different platform gaming habits, needs and expectations between France, Germany and the UK,” stated Paul Breslin, general manager of PopCap Europe. “This is clearly a maturing market that has by no means finished evolving. People want to play a range of different games across different platforms. From a publisher’s perspective, this shows the importance of having diversity and multi-platform solutions to reach individual markets in these important regions.”
Those surveyed said they played the majority of games – casual game sites, social networks, gaming consoles, boxed games, and downloaded games – in order to relax and unwind. In contrast, they were most likely to turn to mobile games out of boredom.
