Gaming Poised to Be the Favorite Past Time in the United Kingdom

It seems that among European countries, Britain’s inhabitants are those that play online and use videogame consoles the most, according to the United Kingdom National Gamers Survey of 2009. Among those questioned, no less than 73% reported that they are playing videogames regularly and it seems that the trend is for that to become the biggest past time of the population, ahead of Internet use, watching TV, reading newspapers or magazines.

The study, which is part of a string of sociological works conducted in France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States, targeted about 13,000 persons and the finding are pretty interesting. For people who are aged between 13 and 19, gaming occupies more than 11 hours of their week and even some as young as eight admit to spending seven hours and a half gaming per week.

Interestingly, the disparity between genders when it comes to play time seems to be disappearing, with 86% of girls mentioning that they are playing games and with more than 42% of those over 50 saying the same.

The study also revealed a trend toward more casual gaming, with social networks becoming important platforms for videogames that do not require too much time and mobile devices, from the Nintendo DSi and the PlayStation Portable and mobile phones, are also gaining ground.

Stephen Palmer, who is the group director at TNS Technology, stated that “Gaming has rapidly expanded in popularity and now appeals to as wide an audience as TV and the internet. In several cases, young and old are even moving away from traditional media and spend their free time playing games instead. The variety of games on offer has drawn in segments of the population that would not ordinarily be associated with gaming, which has turned the traditional view of the ‘gamer’ on its head.”