Research from social gaming publisher, PopCap games, offers up some insight to current demographics for the casual gaming market.
The research found that 65 per cent of British workers admit to engaging in non-work activity during work hours. 1,564 adults were surveyed.
On average, British reclaim up to one our of the working day for themselves, with almost half spending time surfing the Internet, while a third play games online, either on a PC or their mobile device. Furthermore, 85 per cent of those aged 16-24 play games online, on their PC or on a mobile device.
PopCap is naturally keen to demonstrate this is a positive trend. East Carolina University director of the Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic, Dr. Carmen Russoniello, said in a release “I believe British workers are taking time out during work as an attempt to manage the consequences of dealing with life stressors including work. Randomised controlled studies in our lab using electroencephalography (brain wave) and heart rate variability measurements have clearly demonstrated that mood improves and stress decreases while taking time out to play casual video games such as Bejeweled 2 and Peggle."
Like with all publisher-sponsored research, the PopCap Games study should be taken with a grain of salt, but workers-on-lunchbreak does seem to be a substantial part of a rapidly growing market, one that publishers from EA through to Square Enix are taking seriously.
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