New research from the Pew Research Center shows that about 40% of adults in the United States own one or more consoles. That number has been static for about five years, but the interesting part is that women now own slightly more consoles than men, according to the poll—37% of men are console owners, versus 42% of women.
Also interesting was that adults with some college experience are substantially more likely to own a console than either college graduates, high school graduates, or those with only some high school. I’m sure somebody out there will draw the conclusion that games make people drop out of college, but correlation does not equal causation! We don’t yet have enough information about this trend to make any solid conclusions. (For example, in our office’s experience, there are a lot of developers and computer scientists out there who don’t have a degree, often because they found work before graduating.)
In terms of race and ethnicity, white folks are less likely to own a console than black or Hispanic folks, which is something we’ve known for some time. There’s no information on any other ethnic groups, however.
Finally, there’s a positive correlation between household income and console ownership, and adults between the ages of 18 and 49 are more likely to own a console than those older than 49—neither of these items is particularly surprising. Console ownership drops off significantly after age 65, though notably, it doesn’t fall to zero.
The takeaway from all this is that women and people of color are absolutely playing games—just in case anybody wasn’t sure.
The sample for the poll was 1,907 adults ages 18 or older, all living in the United States.
