According to Kids and Gaming 2011, the latest report from leading market research company, The NPD Group, since 2009, the population growth of kids ages 2-17 increased 1.54 percent in the U.S., while the gaming population of that age group has grown 12.68 percent. This growth in kids’ gaming population is far outpacing the growth experienced by the population of 2-17 year olds in the country.

Today, 91 percent of kids (approximately 64 million) ages 2-17 are gaming in the U.S., an increase of 9 points when compared to 2009. While the percentage of kids gaming has grown significantly across all age groups, the fastest growth has been among kids ages 2-5, with an increase of 17 points in gaming incidence when compared to 2009. The other segments driving this growth are females and teens ages 15-17.

“Year-to-date through August 2011, kids comprised 44 percent of new physical software dollar sales, representing a vitally important consumer segment for the games industry,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “Knowing how kids are spending their gaming time and dollars in both traditional and non-traditional outlets is key to staying relevant to this highly engaged audience.”

While gaming on most devices has grown for 2-17 year olds, platforms such as mobile devices and computers have experienced the most significant increases in gaming activity. For example, since 2009, gaming on mobile devices is up from 8 percent to 38 percent, while gaming on traditional portable gaming devices experienced more modest gains, up from 38 percent to 45 percent.

The impressive growth experienced on mobile devices has been driven in large part by the availability of new devices on the market such as tablets, iOS and Android-based smartphones, as well as the abundance of content for these devices in the form of free and paid apps.

Despite this growth in mobile apps gaming, in the past 3 months, kids and their parents spent more than five times as much on physical games (across devices) as they did on mobile gaming apps for smartphones and other app-capable devices.

Data was collected via an online survey from August 1-15, 2011. (The 2009 wave was conducted from September 10-17, 2009). The survey was completed by 4,136 individuals ages 2 -17. In cases where surrogate reporting was used, mothers were asked to bring the child to the computer to answer survey questions, either with or without assistance. In order to qualify as a gamer, respondents had to report that they currently, personally play video games. Final survey data was weighted to represent the U.S. population of individuals age 2 to 17.

About the Author

John Gaudiosi

Editor-in-Chief

John Gaudiosi has been covering videogames for the past 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, CNET, Wired Magazine and CBS.com. He has focused on the convergence of entertainment and videogames for outlets like Video Business, Home Media Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Gamerlive.TV and is also a freelance game columnist for Reuters and writes for outlets like Forbes.com, NVISION, Official PlayStation Magazine, EGM Now, Geek Monthly, PrimaGames.com, and Yahoo! Games. John also serves as the video game expert for NBC in Washington D.C. and has produced videogame documentaries for The History Channel and Starz Entertainment. John was named one of the Top 50 Game Journalists in the world by Next-Gen.biz in 2007. He is the co-author of Scholastic Books' How to Get into Videogames, Prima Publishing's Madden: Twenty Years of Videogame Football and Electronic Arts: The Official History.