RESEARCH REVEALS ONLINE GAME SPENDING SURGE
- Nearly one in three are playing with friends and family
- Up to two out of five are playing more games than a year ago
A nationwide study from the UK’s leading digital board game publisher Marmalade Game Studio shows around 9.98 million people bought online games including board games in the past 12 months spending an average £46. Around two out of five adults (37%) say they are playing more games than a year ago with 15% saying they are playing an additional three games or more.
A big driver for the rise in spending was people playing with family and friends as a way of staying connected during COVID-19 with nearly one in three (30%) people regularly playing with relatives and friends. Marmalade Game Studio has recently introduced Bubble in-game video chat allowing gamers to add friends and family to group chats, start games from these, and video chat whilst playing.
Nearly four out of five (79%) of those playing online games do it alone but increasingly people play with others – around 5% say they play with work colleagues while 36% play games against people they do not know.
Cristina Mereuta, co-CEO at Marmalade Game Studio, said: “The range and quality of games available to play online is expanding rapidly and includes traditional board games and games people can play with friends and family.
“Increasingly people own smartphones and other devices to play games on and buying games is relatively affordable as well as being a good way of keeping in touch with others during lockdown restrictions.”
The table below shows how many more online games people are playing regularly compared with a year ago.
|
NUMBER OF EXTRA GAMES PEOPLE ARE PLAYING |
PERCENTAGE OF GAMERS |
|
Same as last year |
63% |
|
1 |
9% |
|
2 |
14% |
|
3 |
7% |
|
4 |
2% |
|
5 |
2% |
|
6 |
1% |
|
7 |
1% |
|
8 |
1% |
|
9 |
1% |
|
10 |
1% |
NOTES TO EDITORS
* Marmalade Game Studio commissioned the independent consumer research company Consumer Intelligence to interview 1,022 adults aged 18-plus weighted to represent the UK population between November 12th and 14th 2021
** Based on Office for National Statistics estimate of 52.89 million UK adult population
For more information, please contact Phil Anderson at PerceptionA on 07767 491 519
About Marmalade Games Studio
London-based Marmalade Game Studio is one of the most successful publishers in the digital board games markets on Steam, Nintendo Switch and mobile. Notable successes include MONOPOLY, THE GAME OF LIFE 2 and CLUE/CLUEDO, all highly polished and innovative games that constantly top the charts on the App Store and Google Play.
For more information about Marmalade Game Studio, please visit the website: https://marmaladegamestudio.com/, and follow us on Twitter (@MarmaladeGames), Facebook (@MarmaladeGameStudio), and Instagram (@MarmaladeGames)