New Zealand has an aging gaming population

A new report has found the average age of a New Zealand gamer is 33.

According to the research paper, published by the Centre for New Media Research at Bond University, has also found that 88.5 per cent of all New Zealand households have a device for playing games.

Head of the Centre for New Media Research, Dr Jeffrey Brand, said in a release “the research indicates that every New Zealand household with children has a device for playing games, and this really tells us that video games are ubiquitous in 2010. It’s also fascinating to note that despite this figure, 78 per cent of gamers are in fact over the age of 18 and have been playing on average for 12 years.”

Other interesting findings of the report include:

Females make up 44 per cent of the total gamer population, gamers and non-gamers share similar education, employment and household income profiles, across New Zealand, PCs are installed in 82 per cent of game households, consoles in 69 per cent.

Additionally, 91 per cent of New Zealanders aged six to 15 years compared with 43 per cent of those over 50 play computer and video games, and as many as 46 per cent of gamers play online and 59 per cent with others in the same room.

This research comes on the back of some encouraging growth statistics for the New Zealand games market - The New Zealand computer games industry grew by more than 12 per cent and conducted over $170 million in 2009 according to GfK OzToys.

One would assume the statistics would be similar in Australia, which only serves to strengthen the viability of calls for an R18+ rating for games in the local market.