ANALYSIS: European gamers in profile

Research firm Ipsos MediaCT has taken a look at who is playing video games and how they are doing it for the first quarter of 2014 in its latest Gametrack study.

The data shows that France is the biggest nation of gamers out of those investigated. 58 per cent of the population aged six to 64 play games, representing 29m people. However, there are more gamers in Germany (30m).

But they were not the most dedicated audience – the UK takes the prize for the highest number of hours spent gaming each week at eight. Spain’s was the lowest figure, with the population only playing for five hours each week.

In Europe the data is mixed. In the UK and Spain people prefer boxed games – 25 per cent in the UK said they preferred these, while 23 per cent said the same in Spain. But in Germany and France, online games are more popular – in France 37 per cent of gamers preferred online, while 27 per cent of Germans said the same.

GameTrack is commissioned and underwritten by ISFE, and conducted by Ipsos MediaCT. Subscribers include some of the biggest names in the industry. It currently runs in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Spainand Russia.