Article
Kids and video games: how gaming became a core hobby
Gaming stopped being a niche pastime for kids some time ago. Across our markets it sits at or near the top of the hobby list, it occupies more hours than most parents realise, and it has become an aspiration as well as an activity.
Hours in the week
Gaming takes up a meaningful share of a child's week, and it grows as they get older. In the UK, 3 to 12-year-olds spent 7 hours 49 minutes a week gaming, rising to 9 hours 35 minutes among 13 to 18s. In the US the figures were 5 hours 40 minutes and 7 hours 8 minutes respectively.
9hrs 35minsWeekly gaming time among UK 13 to 18sKids Insights, UK, 2020.
Gaming as a hobby
Those hours translate into identity. In the US, gaming was the top hobby for boys aged 6 to 18, peaking with tweens and younger teens at 26%. In the UK and Spain it ranked second, behind only football, and among British boys aged 16 to 18 it took the top spot at 19%. In India it came third among boys, behind cricket and reading.
That pattern matters for anyone competing for young attention. Gaming is not one option among many; in most of our markets it is the default, and everything else is competing with it.
Girl gamers are a growing category
The stereotype of gaming as a boys' activity was already breaking down. Mobile gaming and shifting expectations opened a path for female players, and the UK saw a 9% increase in girl gamers in 2019.
In the US, Nintendo re-entered the top ten favourite brands for teen girls, and gaming rose to become their sixth favourite hobby. The gap at the time was representation: relatively few female characters featured in the games those players were choosing.
What kids actually play
Among under-13s in the UK, Minecraft and Roblox dominated, with 68% of that age group playing video games at all. In the US, Minecraft ranked first for both boys and girls. On mobile, Candy Crush held its position across France, Germany, Italy and Spain among 3 to 12s.
Gaming also shaped what kids wanted to become. The number of children pursuing IT and coding-related paths rose enough that "game developer" became one of the most popular career aspirations in both the UK and the US.
Esports viewers spend
Esports turned out to be a commercial audience, not just an attentive one. In Germany, a million tweens and teens, 15.5% of that group, watched esports on screen. That audience was 135% more likely than the rest of the population to buy video game-related clothing.
135%More likely to buy game-related clothing, among German tween and teen esports viewersKids Insights, Germany, 2020.
In-experience spending was climbing alongside it. US children aged 3 to 18 were spending more than $5bn a year in total on apps and in-app purchases.
The takeaway
Gaming is where a large share of young attention already lives, and it is the entry point to fandom for categories well beyond games themselves, from sport to entertainment to toys. For brands not currently targeting kids, this audience is a first look at what the next generation of their consumer will expect.
This generation of kids have access at a very young age to every bit of content they could possibly want. That presents both challenges and opportunities for content creators, brands and properties.Nick Richardson, Founder, The Insights Family
Figures from the Kids Insights Global Video Games report, published 2020. Based on surveys of more than 105,000 children a year across the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and India.
