Children Playing Video Games (Photo : Reuters)
The NPD Group released a 2015 children's gaming report that revealed mobile devices have become the top platform among kids and teens, surpassing PCs. While video game-playing on smartphones and tablets has increased, home computer gaming is down 22 percent since 2013, and highest among toddlers.
NPD released its "Kids and Gaming 2015" report on September 23, Wednesday. While 63 percent of kids between the ages of 2 to 17 reported that they play games on mobile devices, only 45 percent play them on desktops or laptops.
Gaming consoles such as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and portal devices such as PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS also dropped in popularity among kids. The decrease was close to PC games' dip.
Liam Callahan is an NPD Group analyst. He said in a statement that the biggest surprise in the report was that kids were playing PC games less, as more are playing mobile video games. It could be the result of parents using smartphones and tablets for tasks that they once did on desktops and laptops.
The report also showed that children are spending more time using mobile devices. Kids are spending 41 percent more time on the gadgets than they did one year ago, according to Game Spot. The average weekly time increased to 6 hours.
Children spent $27 on physical games during the last three months. Meanwhile, they spent around $13 during that period on digital games.
Across all platforms boys spent an average $54 on video games. Girls spent around $36.
Newzoo reported that this year the mobile market is worth around $30 billion based on estimates, according to Venture Beat. It is due partly to mobile games' rising popularity among youngsters.
