An industry needn't be new in order to enjoy a surge in popularity. The market for videogames is a case in point. A recent report from Deloitte documents a robust increase last year in the number of people engaged in gaming, led by a deepening of the sector's earlier inroads among consumers who are well into adulthood. This is by no means a mature market consisting solely of immature consumers.

One conspicuous measure of how extensive the videogame market has become: 58 percent of U.S. households owned a videogame console last year, up from 44 percent as recently as 2006. Released last month and based on survey work in the fall among people age 14 to 75, the report also notes a steep decline in the number of respondents saying they hadn't played a videogame in the previous six months, from 55 percent in 2008 to 32 percent last year.

Among baby boomers (defined in the report as age 44-62), the decline in those saying they hadn't played a videogame in the previous six months was even sharper, from 71 percent in 2008 to 42 percent in 2009. Among Gen Xers (age 27-43), the number of abstainers fell from 47 percent to 27 percent. Of course, videogames already had a large constituency among these age groups, especially the Xers, but gaming became even more the norm last year.

CONSOLE GROWTH
In the case of boomer households, this is reflected in a jump in the proportion that own videogame consoles, from 35 percent in 2008 to 44 percent last year. In Gen X households, the figure inched up from 65 percent to 67 percent. There was even a rise among Millennials (age 14-26), where penetration was already extremely high, from 79 percent to 83 percent. Among the survey's Matures (age 63-75), the figure was flat -- though higher than you might guess -- at 11 percent in both years.

Nor were all these consoles sitting around gathering dust, or just cranking away at long-owned games. The report, titled “State of the Media Democracy,” says 47 percent of respondents played a newly released videogame on a console in the previous six months, up from 31 percent in Deloitte's 2008 report. The year-to-year rise was especially sharp among boomers (from 12 percent to 31 percent) and Xers (from 37 percent to 54 percent).

While the recession has forced consumers into austerity mode in many respects, it seems not to have weakened their appetite for videogames. "The data indicate that Americans are playing more videogames across all platforms than they were a year ago," notes Ed Moran, director of insights and innovation at Deloitte. "Although a majority of the respondents acknowledged that they were forced to cut back on entertainment spending as a result of the recession, the gaming sector is clearly capturing a growing amount of their entertainment time and attention," he adds. "The fact that Americans are spending more time watching TV at home indicates that they may well be spending more time at home during the recession, and gaming may be a beneficiary of this greater time spent at home."



DON'T IGNORE THE MATURES!
Videogaming has become such a common avocation among adults that even the Matures have the potential to become a significant market for games and gaming equipment. In 2008, 85 percent of Matures said they hadn't played a videogame in the previous six months. In the new report, the number had fallen to 56 percent. Matures are most likely to play videogames on a computer. In fact, the number of Matures saying they'd used a computer in the previous six months to play a newly released game soared from 12 percent in 2008 to 40 percent last year. By contrast, the number of Matures saying they used a console for that purpose rose from 3 percent to 8 percent.

"Given their lower uptake at this point, it seems to me that Matures represent a promising market for gaming manufacturers," says Moran. "Given their relatively higher levels of free time, due to being retired from active employment, there isn't a clear reason why games tailored to Mature interests wouldn't be very successful."

The report finds boomers sharing the Matures' preference for gaming via computer. Despite the big increase (noted above) in the number of boomer respondents saying they'd used a console in the previous six months to play a newly released game, it still lagged behind the number saying they'd used a computer in this way -- 41 percent, up from 19 percent the previous year.

THE SMARTPHONE FACTOR
Consumers' growing use of smartphones promises to widen another opening for videogames. Already, 5 percent of Deloitte's respondents reported using a smartphone in the previous six months to play a newly released game, in addition to the 10 percent who said they'd used a mobile/cellular phone in that way. Will the videogame market move more in that direction in coming years? "Given the popularity of smartphones, the growing gaming activity and that fact that these platforms can be easily combined, yes, I would expect the game market to tip more in that direction than it already has," says Moran. "Moreover, the popularity of gaming apps on smartphone platforms supports this theory."

Advertising probably can't take a lot of credit for consumers' growing interest in particular games last year. Moran notes that the Deloitte research didn't collect data on how people are attracted to gaming. "But respondents do tell us that 55 percent of them believe that online reviews and ratings influence their broad buying decisions more than any type of online advertising," he says, "so it is likely that online reviews and recommendations of videogames are especially effective, vis-à-vis online ads, in affecting sales of specific titles."