Ten percent
of Americans who report ever playing video games consider themselves to be
“gamers.”
Among the
key findings of a recent Pew Research Center survey on
Americans’ video game habits are the following:
- Half of American adults play video games on a
computer, TV, game console, or portable device like a cellphone, and 10%
consider themselves to be “gamers.”
- Nearly equal numbers of men and women play video
games (50% and 48% respectively), although men are over twice as likely to
call themselves “gamers” (15% of men v. 6% of women).
- Four of every 10 adults believe that violence in
video games is related to violent behavior, but slightly over half
disagree with the statement “people who play violent video games are more
likely to be violent themselves.”
- A quarter of all adults (26%) think video games
are a waste of time; Twenty-four percent think most games are not a waste
of time. One-third think some games are a waste of time. And 16% don’t
know what to think of the issue.
- Almost half of adults are unsure if video games
portray minorities and women poorly.
