Video game players don’t look like the clichés we imagine, study finds

VIDEO GAMES – The cliché of the antisocial video game player, who doesn’t leave his room and stays in jogging pants, is a thing of the past. This is what the Union of Leisure Software Editors (SELL) confirms in its annual study, which deconstructs certain misconceptions, such as the fact that video game enthusiasts are more sedentary than the average, that they do less sports or they don’t open a book. It’s quite the opposite.

The report provides a very clear overview: first observation, this leisure activity is clearly part of the daily lives of French people, since 52% played a video game last year and 75% of the 38.5 million players do so at least once a week. The average age of players is 39 years old and 49% are women. 84% are adults (18 years and over), 16% children aged 10 to 17.

There are naturally more and more seniors: 43% of those over 65 play video games, or 4.7 million players.

A richer cultural and sporting life

Among the clichés that the figures deny, the supposed isolation caused by playing video games. All gamers (98%) experience solo gaming, but 59% also play with others (online or in the same room). The study goes further and shows that it is a leisure activity that socializes: one in two child gamers makes friends thanks to video games.

Players, especially younger ones, have the feeling of belonging to a community and this does not only exist on the Internet: 55% of players have already met members of their community in real life.

Another cliché which is refuted by the study: players generally have a richer cultural and sporting life than the average. “ These committed players are not more sedentary but on the contrary more open than the average French person to cultural and sporting activities. “, underlines the report. Regular players go more often than all French people to the cinema, museum, theater or concert.

For example, 76% of them regularly go to the cinema compared to 68% for the general average. The same goes for reading: 71% of players are readers, compared to 66% for all French people. And they play sports more often: at least once a month for 76% of them, 6 points more than the French average.

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