Nielsen Survey Finds NES-Age Users Spend More Time Playing Smartphone Games

Posted 14:42 EST on 04FEB2014 by: tim walker in news » famicom, nes, nielsen, smartphone

A survey conducted by Nielsen Holdings N.V. has revealed some interesting information about smartphone usage patterns, including that gamers who grew up during the NES/Famicom era spend more time playing games on their phones than younger users.

The survey findings were based on data collected via the company’s Mobile NetView and the PC version of NetView during December of last year. Out of 37 million people surveyed, 29 million of them (78%) said that they use their smartphones to play games. Users who play games on their phones spend approximately 16 minutes per day doing so.

When breaking down the survey results by age group (and including all users, even the non-gamers), it was found that users in the 18-34 age group spend more time using their phones to access social network services than for anything else. It was found that this group spends around an average of 30 minutes per day accessing these sites, yet only an average of 12 minutes per day playing games on their phones. On the other hand, users in the 35-49 age group spend an average of 16 minutes per day playing games, and an average of just 11 minutes per day on social network sites.

An article on Iririo notes that users in the 35-49 age group were in elementary, middle or high school during the NES era, which might explain their tendency to play games longer on modern devices. They also note that users in the 18-34 age group tend to view their smartphones as a tool for communication, resulting in them spending longer periods using them for things related to social media.