According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, about 49 percent of all adult Americans “ever play video games on a computer, TV, game console, or portable device like a cellphone,” yet only around 10 percent would actually classify themselves as “gamers.”

With the incredible growth in casual mobile gaming, it is unsurprising that so many Americans play games, but while the demographics of the gaming industry have changed, the perception of it still lags behind.

“A majority of American adults (60 percent) believe that most people who play video games are men – a view that is shared by 57 percent of women who themselves play video games,” Pew research analyst Maeve Duggan wrote in the report. “But the data illustrates that in some ways this assumption is wrong: A nearly identical share of men and women report ever playing video games (50 percent of men and 48 percent of women).”

Duggan added, “However, men are more than twice as likely as women to call themselves ‘gamers’ (15 percent vs. 6 percent). And among those ages 18 to 29, 33 percent of men say the term ‘gamer’ describes them well, more than three times the proportion of young women (9 percent) who say the same.”

Mixed feelings towards gaming

Duggan also noted that America’s attitude towards games is complicated, with the population’s opinions fairly evenly divided in several areas.

For example, according to Pew, roughly a quarter of American adults consider most games to be a waste of time, while another quarter consider games to not be a waste of time at all. The remainder are either unsure or believe that it depends on the game. Americans are similarly split on questions about the value of games for teaching problem solving skills and improving teamwork.

Surprisingly, a full third of respondents said that they consider some games to be a better form of entertainment than television.

You can read Pew’s full report on Gaming and Gamers here.

Image by Eric David | SiliconANGLE