Social Gaming Phenomenon in U.K

Maker of some of the world's most popular video PopCap Games, today unveiled the results of a survey targeting "social gamers": Consumers in the UK who play games on social networking platforms such as Facebook® and MySpace®. Respondents More than 24% said they play social games regularly, indicating a total social gamer population of approximately 100 million in the United Kingdom alone. Additionally contrary to prevailing stereotypes, the average social gamer is a 43-year old woman.

The social games sector is projected by industry analysts and researchers to generate revenues of more than US$1 billion in 2010.

Nearly 5,000 consumers who responded to a survey, more than 1,200 play games on social networking sites and platforms at least once a week, qualifying them as "social gamers" for the purposes of the survey. The percentages of all qualified survey respondents who are from UK 58% of all social gamers are female and 42% are male. The average age of social gamers is 43, . Further, 23% of British social gamers are 50 or older. Interesting thing is to know that Only 6% of all social gamers are age 21 or younger.

Men and women differ in their consumption of video games, and attitudes towards, social games:

• Well among the most avid social gamers, women make up the majority; 38% of female social gamers say they play social games several times a day, vs. 29% of males.
• Additionally, women are more suitable to play social games with real-world friends than men are (68% vs. 56%).
• And men are more inclined than women to play with strangers (41% vs. 33%); nearly twice as many women as men say they play social games with relatives (46% vs. 29%).