some statistics
The gaming industry brings in an estimated £29.25 billion revenue around the world (2014).
Video games are played in 67% of households in the USA.
40% of gamers are female, and the average age of gamers is 34 years, which
suggests that this form of entertainment appeals to a very wide audience and cuts
across different demographics.
Within strong gaming cultures around the world, the average young person will
have spent approximately 10,000 hours playing video games by the time they have reached their twenty-first birthday. This signifies gaming as a significant ‘parallel track of education’.*
‘#gamergate’ began in August 2014 and received a huge amount of media attention.
It is an ongoing controversy drawing attention about the perceived misogyny of games and the gaming culture.
These statics reflect the video game industry in the United States, as researched by Entertainment
Software Rating Board, 2014. http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp
* Jane McGonigal, ‘Gaming can make a better world’, TedTalks transcript. 2010.