Mobile, Freemium & TV now the biggest "Gaming" Sector in the US

[shadowDOESrock]

In its annual Gamer Segmentation 2013 study, as reported by CVG, the NPD found “free and mobile gamers” outnumbered other categories such as “core console gamers”, “family gamers”, “casual gamers” and “avid omni gamers”.

Extrapolating from its survey results, the NPD estimated that 29% of all gamers in the US are free and mobile gamers.

In other categories, “avid omni gamers” â€" who play on a variety of platforms, but primarily PC or console â€" grew slightly to 16%, while all other segments declined or remained static.

In somewhat concerning news for the people being mad about the TV Focus on the Xbox One, TV-Use is noted a rising trend; people who use their consoles for non-games entertainment increased to 26%.

[SmashFinale]

I guess Nintendo and Microsoft knew about this beforehand.
I still wonder if Sony is going to put some tv application on their system...

[TheGameNinja]

This is pretty obviously less of a movement in the gaming population and more of an expansion on who is considered a "gamer" by themselves/society. More people are associating themselves with the idea and are being associated with it culturally even though they don't fit what most "gamers" consider to be a "gamer." The result is a lot of people that are now being lumped into the "gamer" category that would normally be considered in the casual market, but since the casual market has become so much more profitable with freemium and mobile rising in popularity, the casual market is looking like a more profitable audience than gamers.

It's just that mobile and freemium can squeeze more money out of people and the casual market seems to be okay with that. Which is fine, but I don't like seeing a console, the one console that seemed to be most associated with "hardcore" console gamers (at least in America) moving almost exclusively in the favor of these business practices.

Wow, I need to go to sleep. Point is, its not that the casual market is growing all that much in the number of people gaming, its just that as that market becomes more profitable they are being targeted more, almost exclusively. And since they're being encouraged by this behavior by marketing, they are more willing to call themselves gamers. It's not that they weren't gamers before, its just that more people are associating themselves with the term.

[Princessofthechaosemerald]

This is pretty obviously less of a movement in the gaming population and more of an expansion on who is considered a "gamer" by themselves/society. More people are associating themselves with the idea and are being associated with it culturally even though they don't fit what most "gamers" consider to be a "gamer."

This. Allllll of this.

[Hakudamashi]

As long as I get to keep seeing good games released, these numbers mean nothing to me.