Home entertainment activities among online Americans

Having fun is one of the main activities for which online Americans use their connected devices – smartphones, home computers, or tablets. In the time prior to and since Covid, there has been a shift in which devices online Americans mostly use for entertainment.

This MetaFAQs reports on the percentage of online Americans who regularly use their connected devices for entertainment activities, showing the four-year trend from 2019 through 2022 and drilling down into generational age groups and device types: smartphone, home computers, and tablets.

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Gaming trends and user profile

Online adults are deeply engaged in various forms of entertainment, particularly gaming. Over half of American adults use their connected devices for playing games, watching videos, and listening to music, like online adults worldwide. Despite temporary disruption due to the pandemic, the game-playing rate bounced back and grew gradually, indicating its popularity as a staple pastime. This is based on our TUP/Technology User Profile 2022 survey of 13,641 online adults across the US, Germany, UK, Japan, and China, as well as similarly-sized waves from 2019.

Nevertheless, the usage of specialized gaming equipment like game consoles, gaming PCs, or VR headsets has remained limited. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft’s Xbox remain the global market leaders in consoles, each resonating with specific demographic groups and geographical locations. Gaming activities are part of the regular life of most online adults and span all age groups, with younger generations showing a particularly high adoption rate of newer technologies.

Despite a strong focus on gaming, more online adults use their devices for other entertainment activities like watching videos or streaming music. The global demand for gaming, whether casual or immersive, remains substantial, offering growth opportunities. With Apple recently entering the VR/AR/MR headset market, the industry is primed for potential expansion beyond its niche focus. Manufacturers may need to reconsider their current gaming-focused strategies to seize emerging opportunities effectively and broaden their market reach.

This TUPdate looks into the trend around game-playing with connected devices (smartphones, computers, tablets, game consoles), and the use of specialized game equipment (gaming PCs, game consoles). It profiles game-players by their age generation groups, household composition, and presence of children.

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Market potential for Apple Vision Pro and VR/AR/MR headsets

Apple has recently unveiled Vision Pro, a product with broader potential for applications well beyond the immersive-game orientation of many initial headsets. The presentation at the launch showcased Vision Pro’s versatility, demonstrating its potential ability to revolutionize a host of activities of many types: entertainment, communication, collaboration, productivity, creativity, and videography. Furthermore, the demo subtly highlighted the potential benefits of Apple’s ecosystem and tighter integration.

Interestingly, gaming and industrial applications, frequently highlighted in the launches of competing VR/AR/MR (Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality) headsets, were not included in the Vision Pro demo. This divergence indicates a strategic focus away from a unique niche segment of the market.

Analyzing consumer technology trends requires tracking behaviors, a practice underscored by years of TUP/Technology User Profile research. The mantra that ‘actions speak loudest’ remains as pertinent today as ever. The activities people engage in are the most reliable indicators of consumer technology adoption patterns. It is less about which devices or electronics consumers use; their behaviors are the most important.

An intriguing insight from TUP’s ongoing research is that people switch devices quickly and alter their behavior slowly. Consequently, it becomes crucial to explore the number of people who regularly engage in any given activity, which the research does in detail.

The research also sets out to identify the market size for each of these activities. It quantifies how many people participate in a broad range of these activities.

Furthermore, the report also highlights demographic details, Apple’s brand loyalty, and current VR headset penetration rates. By doing so, the study is expected to offer valuable insights into the potential future for VR/AR/MR headsets such as Apple’s Vision Pro.

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Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. It may not be used with a generative AI system without separate licensing and express written permission. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.

Brief profile of Americans regularly playing games using connected devices

Fun is a major pastime for most, but not all, American adults using connected devices. Whether they use a game console, gaming PC, regular computer, tablet, or mobile phone, most Americans regularly play immersive or other games.

This TUPdate briefly profiles Americans who regularly play immersive/video or other games, detailing their age, gender, employment status, presence of children, life stage, and use of game-specific devices such as a VR headset.

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Usage guidelines: This document may be freely shared within and outside your organization in its entirety and unaltered. It may not be used with a generative AI system without separate licensing and express written permission. To share or quote excerpts, please contact MetaFacts.