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August 30, 2017
Ready Player One. I will never forget the moment I unwrapped my Atari and then played Centipede, Pitfall, and Frogger until my hand cramped and my fingers were molded into the infamous joystick claw.
From there my love of video games germinated, soon came NES and the endless hours of Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Mike Tyson’s PunchOut – I still curl into a bull at the mere mention of Bald Bull.
And gaming only grew in my blood making me not so different from all the other Gen Xer’s out there and these Millennials running around today getting all the attention.
That’s right, two major demographic groups, sharing a passion for gaming and that means that any serious digital strategist should be considering how to add gaming channels into their digital campaigns.
According to ComScore at least 50% of ALL people online own at least one gaming console and 41 Million people own at least two from the big 3 console makers.
Casual Gamers, those who typically play less than 10 hours a week, make up most gamers and don’t start getting sexist, of these casual gamers, 43% are female.
Every day at the WORLD FAMOUS PunchDrunk Digital Ad Agency someone asks, pleads, begs us how to reach the young up and comers, those pesky Millennials, who are believed to have no brand loyalty and love jumping from fad to fad. (As if we didn’t do the same things when we were young, how else can you explain the fact that one year we were rocking tight rolled jeans, the next going so baggy all the ladies knew our favorite brand of boxers.)
I think one of the most interesting trends with the younger generation is their desire for video content. They gobble it up, going from one YouTube video to the next seemingly without a desire to come up for air or even pizza.
The savvy digital marketer is paying attention to these two major loves with Millennials, video and gaming. Take for instance that according to ComScore, 1.77 Million households streamed Twitch over-the-top to their TV. Twitch, a network we adore and utilize on digital campaigns, has been at the forefront of Cross Platform Entertainment and if you want to reach gamers, whether young or old, you should be seriously considering adding Twitch to your media mix.
Once again for those of you that stereotype the gamers out there realize that 53% of ALL mobile gamers are women – yes 53% means there are more female mobile gamers than male mobile gamers. AND forget about just reaching one age group when going after mobile gaming. It’s all over the place. That sweet spot of 25-34 year-olds make up the biggest chunk of thumb gaming, representing 70% of the total population, but the 45+ crowd are in it for the long haul. Over 50% of mobile game players over age 45 are DAILY players.
The best illustration of the vastness of mobile gaming across generations is visible from quickly referencing the top 10 game apps.
When I was young I only watched someone play a game when it wasn’t my turn and I secretly wished they would, “hurry up and die” so it would be my turn again. Today playing video games is now only one way we enjoy them, thanks to game streaming services like Twitch and the ever-increasing competitive video gaming industry, gaming has become just as much of an active as a passive form of entertainment.
For more information on how you can add gaming to your digital strategy, contact us at info@punchdrunkdigital.com and we will be more than happy to play a game or two with you while we plan our next digital marketing invasion.
