Most Australians are gamers

A new study has found that more than two thirds of Australians play video and computer games.

68 percent of all Australians play video games, a study has found.

An Australian gamer is also 30 years old on average.

The findings come from the annual Interactive Australia report conducted by Bond University, who sampled over 1600 households.

Females are playing more games as well, with girl gamers increasing up to 46 per cent, up 5 per cent from last year.

Dr Jeffrey Brand, author of the report, said games were great for spending time with children.

“95 per cent of children aged between 6 to 10 play computer games so for parents it’s a great way to spend time with their kids and use games for educational purposes.”

The study also probed into the controversial R18+ classification debate. Two thirds of adults surveyed had no idea Australia lacked an R18+ rating for games and 91 per cent of gamers and non-gamers thought Australia should introduce one.

Ron Curry, CEO of Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia, agreed.

“With the average age of gamers being 30, it makes no sense to censor games to a point where they are only appropriate for a 15 year old. Such censorship would not be acceptable on television, at the cinema or in print, so why apply it unfairly to another entertainment medium,” Curry said.

Most gamers are also veterans, with the average adult gamer playing for 11 years. One hour was the average time spent playing, while nearly 10 per cent of all games in Australian homes were pirated.

Source: Press Release