Learn more about how marketers can leverage new insights about the mainstream gamer audience, to increase marketing reach and impact by viewing our latest online presentation.

Given the exponential growth in videogaming, gamers are now the new power consumer, representing approximately 144 million of the 244 million online U.S. consumers. Today’s gamers are almost as likely to be female as male, are often married with children, and have mainstream incomes and rich social lives. In fact, gamers are more active, more social, more influential, and more affluent than non-gamers. The gaming audience can no longer be ignored or treated as tangential - Grand Theft Auto 4 generated $310 MM in its first day, shattering previous records, and exceeding blockbuster entertainment properties like Dark Knight, Spiderman 3, and the final Harry Potter novel. One year ago, Activision announced that the Guitar Hero series had generated $1 billion in sales – just a short year later, the specific title Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has now hit the $1 billion mark.

Furthermore, gamers are massive consumers of all forms of media, whether traditional or online. Indeed, the heaviest gamers actually spend more time than other consumers on mainstream media, including television and the Internet. Perhaps most importantly, gamers influence others (including non-gamers) regarding technology, purchases, and entertainment content.

Ipsos MediaCT understands that gaming is a now a mainstream consumer activity that brand marketers and advertisers ignore at their peril. As a result, Ipsos MediaCT has dedicated significant resources to understanding this vital industry. Two important studies were the focus of this webinar presentation:

"Are You Game?" public release – a study sponsored by IGN (a multimedia website with a heavy focus on videogames) and its parent company Fox Interactive Media, and supported by Ipsos MediaCT and the Ipsos Understanding UnLtd. qualitative practice. This in-depth study focused equally on gaming and non-gaming lifestyle attitudes and behaviors of the gaming household. As a result, these insights provide a more holistic view of the mainstreaming gamer market.

"The State of the Videogame Market" report – released as a part of Ipsos MediaCT’s MOTION syndicated program. This program was introduced in 2006 to monitor the digital video landscape and the converging technology options available today, including gaming-related behaviors.