Austria is apparently a country of computer and video gamers. This is evident from the GfK study ‘Gaming in Austria 2023’, which was published on Thursday on behalf of the entertainment software association ÖVUS. Accordingly, 5.8 million people or 69 percent use computer and video games, which is a new record. Two years ago that was half a million less.
The basis was 3,009 online surveys in June and July of this year. “The research once again underlines how much gaming has become part of society. In particular, the research disproves common stereotypes about video games. They are not a hobby for lonely male teenagers. They fascinate men and women equally. People play well into old age. Video games are for everyone and the research shows this in impressive numbers,” said ÖVUS President Niki Laber.
More than 60 percent “gamble”
Further results of the survey, which has been conducted every two years since 2017: more than six in ten Austrians “gamble” regularly (at least several times a month). In addition, the players are getting older: two years ago the average age was 36.4 years, now the players were on average 38.1 years old. The nominal increase in the total number of players is mainly caused by the age group over 50 years. The proportion of men and women is therefore in balance (51 to 49 percent).
The detailed results in the infographic:
The largest platform remained mobile devices, namely smartphones and tablets. 54 percent of gamers play on mobile devices. Consoles have risen over the course of the surveys from 37 percent in 2017 to 40 percent in 2023. Over the same period, PCs fell from 29 percent to 27 percent. The same picture emerges when it comes to playing time: 42 percent of all gaming hours in Austria are played on smartphones/tablets, 37 percent on consoles and only 21 percent on PCs. Here too it turned out that the PC has been losing importance since 2017 and consoles are gaining.
Gamers spend an average of twelve hours per week on the device in question. That is about half an hour more than before the corona pandemic (2019: 11.5 hours), but less than during the pandemic (2021: 12.9 hours). And digital purchases are apparently more popular than retail packages: 39 percent of gamers prefer to get games on physical storage media, but a majority of 46 percent prefer to get the games digitally. The main reason respondents gave for preferring digital games was that it was faster, easier and more convenient. Also mentioned were the low price, the fact that downloads cannot be damaged (no scratched data storage media), the easy operation (no need to change the disk) and the space saving.
Source: Krone
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