Why Portsmouth’s ‘average’ gamer is no longer the average

It existed within sub-level arcade halls and, eventually, on the 28-inch television sets in our living rooms.

In a similar vein, the gamers of the world were subject to a particular stereotype. Rightly or wrongly, many of us held a view of the ‘average gamer’: a young adult, typically male, who could lose hours to Star Craft, Doom, Final Fantasy and Half-Life.

Many new trends and movements within the industry have carried it forward into the 21st century and, on reflection, it has been decades since anyone could have successfully argued that those original stereotypes held true.

What, however, has changed so drastically that the ‘average gamer’ – the near-unanimous face of the industry back in the earliest days – no longer bears any resemblance to the average gamer of today?

Online casino remains unparalleled

There are few areas within the wider world of gaming more attuned to market trends than that of the online casino.

With more than two decades under its belt, this industry has generated an incredible fanbase around the world and has grown into a multi-billion dollar business through its own understanding of what the ‘average’ gamer wants.

How has the online casino claimed such a valuable spot in the gaming industry? By responding to the changes in the gaming market – or the shifting definition of the ‘average gamer’ – and increasing the variety of games on offer, as well as making their titles more appealing through ever-changing bonuses. You can find out more about bonuses here – just one of the many reasons why the online casino continues to thrive, and stands as a benchmark for the rest of the gaming industry.

Mobile gaming leads the way

The old notion of the gamer secreted away in a dim corner of the house has never been further from the truth than it is now. As of mid-2020, for instance, the world saw in excess of 2.2 billion active mobile gamers - an incredible marketplace thriving on the versatility, variety, and portability of mobile games libraries.

Now, with the introduction of games streaming services such as xCloud, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, along with the rollout of 5G, we can only expect the significance of mobile gaming – on-the-go, and untethered from the bulky consoles and gaming PCs – to continue growing, and for the ‘mobile gamers’ of the world to comprise more and more of the industry as a whole.

Trends feature an incredibly diverse range of titles and genres

Long gone are the days when first-person shooters, racing games and platformers ruled the industry. Today, one need only reflect on the most popular games of the year to see quite how versatile the industry has proven itself to be – and how much we, as gamers, are now able to differ in our preferences.

Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Nintendo’s Animal Crossing are currently just two of the industry’s best-selling titles, and their differences are almost as conspicuous as their sheer popularity. From this, we can see how adept developers now are at catering to their wide fanbases – fanbases which does not lend itself to a single, unified definition in the same way that it may once have been.

The ‘average’ gamer no longer exists – at least not in the same capacity that it did two or three decades ago. Instead, the industry, and its players, have given rise to a vast, shifting landscape in which every interest, skill-level and genre can bear the same weight.

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