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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Highlights: Wearables, Hearables, Listening & Speaking

Entertainment, communication, and smart homes have all evolved beyond requiring typing on a keyboard or sitting near PC speakers. Wearable and hearables have extended a broad range of audible activities further towards a more personal convenience. However, active usage of any wearables or hearables has varied considerably across market segments. While Bluetooth headphones are widespread, VR headsets persist as niche products among a younger, more affluent, and tech-savvy segment. Smart speakers, in contrast, are showing signs of having peaked after rising in use among a middle market.
This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: wearables penetration, hearables penetration, wearable devices used, trends in wearables and hearables, purchase plans for wearables, listening activities, penetration of voice assistant usage, the profile of voice assistant users, the profile of hearables users, and the profile of wearables users.

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Highlights: Consumer Electronics

Hearables are having a tumultuous time during the pandemic, and users adapt to shifting situations. Webcams are a significant force, as are wireless Bluetooth headsets, both pivotal for users working or schooling from home. Meanwhile, voice-enabled speakers have reached a plateau, reaching their largest share among neither the youngest nor oldest adults. Smartwatches have made inroads across nearly all age groups, especially younger employed adults.
This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: purchase plans for wearables, hearables penetration, wearables penetration, trends in consumer electronics, the profile of hearables users, the profile of wearables users, the profile of key consumer electronics users, and device activities compared to consumer electronics.

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Which hearables products are in active use?

More and more people are listening—to their devices, that is. Over half of online adults in most countries surveyed actively use hearables products—those technology products focused on listening activities—with Japan close behind at 45% of tech users. American online adults have the highest rates of using hearables products of all countries surveyed.

This MetaFAQs reports on hearables product use by country and age group in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan in 2021. Hearables products identified included: webcams, wireless Bluetooth headsets or headphones, voice assistants, voice-enabled speakers, VR headsets, and smart displays.

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How often are voice assistants being used?

Are voice assistants such as Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa in as widespread usage as imagined? How recently have online adults in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan used a voice assistant? How does voice assistant use compare when using a smartphone versus a computer? Between 26% and 38% of online adults in these countries have used a voice assistant with a smartphone, and between 10% and 13% used a computer. This MetaFAQs reports on the recency of voice assistant usage among online adults in the US, the UK, Germany, and Japan. It further splits smartphone and computer usage by the age group of Americans.

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Smart speaker penetration

Smart speakers are making themselves heard, although at a relatively low volume. Between 9% and 19% of online adults across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan regularly use at least one smart speaker – a wireless speaker that can be used with a voice assistant. They skew somewhat younger than the average online adult. This MetaFAQs reports on the percentage of online adults in the US, Germany, the UK, and Japan who regularly use a smart speaker by age group.

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Which hearables products are in active use by Americans?

Listening and hearing activities with connected devices are widely practiced. To help, online Americans use many hearables devices: webcams, voice assistants, wireless Bluetooth headsets, smart speakers, VR headsets, or smart displays. This includes 143.9 million online American adults, or two in three (66%). This MetaFAQs reports on the active penetration rates of these audio-oriented devices split by age group and details the rapidly-changing adoption rates by life stage.

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