Thanks in large part to an increase in usage of phones for gaming, avid omni gamers, defined as those who play on multiple systems, are the only gamer segment to experience growth in the U.S. this year, according to Gamer Segmentation 2014, the latest report from The NPD Group.
The number of avid omni gamers climbed 6 percentage points to 22 percent of the total gaming population, replacing casual gamers as the second largest gamer segment when compared to last year. The largest segment, free & mobile gamers, maintained its size at 29 percent of the U.S. gamer population. The remaining segments—casual gamers, core console gamers, family gamers, and social gamers—declined 1 to 2 percentage points.
Meanwhile, 71 percent of gamers in the U.S. report using phones to play video games, an increase or four percentage points from last year, making it the only type of gaming device to exhibit year-over-year growth in usage. Avid omni gamers and free & mobile gamers reported phones as their top system or device for gaming last year, but they were the only ones to do so.
The report also found that gamers in total spent an average of $48 in the past three months on physical games compared to approximately $16 on digital games in 2014, up from an average of $45 and $11, respectively, in 2013. Core console gamers and family gamers report purchasing physical games to a greater degree than digital games. While monetary spending has increased from last year, so has gamer investment of time each week, driven by the core console gamers, avid omni gamers, casual gamers, and family gamers segments.
