Study: About 67% of Americans Play Video Games (Mostly on Smartphones)

PC or PS4? XBox or Switch? These are the questions that nearly 70% of Americans face as they sit down to unwind by taking on pixelated bad guys.

According to a new study conducted by the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research Firm, about 67% of Americans play video games on at least one type of device, with more than half of gamers using multiple platforms. The study, which was conducted via an online survey of 5,000 people, also showed that 90 percent of those people who play games, do so on their smartphone, tablets, or both.  

Dr. Heather Nofziger, the head of consumer research at EEDAR says that means there's still plenty of room for growth in the mobile game market. 

“Over the past several years, mobile gamers have been a key segment for the games industry to target with marketing spend because of the sheer size and diversity of the audience, as well as the amount of time invested in gaming on this platform,” said Dr. Heather Nofziger, head of consumer research at EEDAR. 

“While there continues to be opportunity for growth in mobile, the real potential for growth lies with getting the other groups increasingly involved in gaming across platforms that they may not have considered using for gaming in the past.”

Gamers' second most popular choice was a personal computer with 52% of players using a laptop or desktop PC to play games. Consoles came in as the third most popular gaming platform in the U.S. with 43% of gamers reporting using them, followed by handheld systems with 9%. 

Gaming takes up around 16% of U.S. gamers' weekly free time, averaging at least 12 hours per week. The study also showed that gamers also spend about the same amount of time on video games as they do watching TV, browsing the internet, listening to music, or using social media.