Teenangels Findings: Game Devices and Use Among Kids and Teens Feb 2009

Teenangels Findings: Game Devices and Use Among Kids and Teens Feb 2009

Gaming devices, like Wii, DS, Xbox360 and Playstation 2, are very popular among all the kids and teens, although they shift from one device or game genre to another often. Based on a recent survey conducted by my Teenangel volunteers from New York, we learned that:

More girls used Wii than boys, but it was overall the most popular of all gaming devices.

Nintendo Wii use accounted for 57.8% of boys polled vs.70.9% of girls polled and most used it in groups or watched others playing the game, while they used Xbox360 more alone (except when they were watching movies or videos as a group or a family).

The number of girls and boys using DS (and the younger demographic using the DS of kids 11 and under) were, roughly the same. This is the age when girls game using game devices more than they will as they get older. (It appears that Wii is the only exception to the device drop-off rule among girls in their teens, although teen girls continue to play free online non-device games, such as those found on Candystand.com.)

Sony Playstation 2 remains the more popular of their two Playstation version, probably because the Playstation 3 was only recently introduced. About 44% of the students polled said they had a PS2, while only roughly 15% has a PS3.

Sony’s PSP was more than twice as popular among boys as among girls. Its use tends to pick up among both boys and girls in 7 th grade and dies down with boys as their most popular game device by 10 th grade. Girls continue to play PSP into 11 th grade. It was used by 12 year old boys the most and 15 year old girls the most. The residual use of Nintendo’s

Game Cube was surprisingly high, accounting for about 25% of the students we polled.

Not surprisingly, however when they play games, the girls chose more fun games, such as Guitar Hero (and anything in that series, 60% of boys vs. 93% of girls). The boys preferred more violent, combat or shooter games, such as World of Warcraft, Halo, Gears of War and Grand Theft Auto, 4 times more frequently than girls of the same age.

Microsoft’s Xbox and its more recent Xbox 360 control about half of the game device market, but three times more boys than girls. In a separate poll, we found that most of the Xbox 360 users in their teens used their devices for more than just playing games. They use it for watching videos and movies, as well. It is becoming a family entertainment device, as much as a gaming device.