Kabam, a developer of social games for more hardcore gamers, has just released the results of a study exploring a new demographic that they have dubbed “hardcore social gamers”. They define this group as gamers who play social games such as those found on Facebook, but their preferred social games are more traditionally “hardcore” genres, like RPGs, MMos, FPSs and the like. Their study found some surprising information.
-According to the study, 21% of Internet users in the United States were classified as hardcore social gamers, which is 25% of gamers overall. This represents about 50 million people.
-Hardcore social gamers skew both younger and male, and about 80% of them play traditional games on PC or consoles; a much smaller percentage of casual social gamers play traditional games.
-Hardcore social gamers not only play more console games, but more social games than casual social gamers. They generally go to networking sites like Facebook specifically for the purpose of playing games.
-24% of these hardcore social gamers play fewer traditional games due to social games. 64% have no changes in habits, and only 12% increased their traditional game playing. For players of Kabam games, a whopping 55% play fewer traditional games. Overall, 45% of hardcore social gamers plan to increase their social game playing over the next sixth months.
-22% of hardcore social gamers have spent less on console games as a result of social games, while 56% had their spending remain about the same. 22% increased spending on console games.
-44% of hardcore social gamers have spent more than $50 on social games in the past year, and 22% spent more than $100. 82% of these gamers have no plans to decrease spending, and 59% plan to spend at an even higher rate than they do already. They mostly purchase power-ups and other resources to improve their characters and gameplay experience.
-Hardcore social gamers place greater importance on socializing and multiplayer in their social games than casual social gamers. They have a greater tendency to create new relationships via social games.
-Hardcore social gamers are more likely to be employed full-time, tend to have higher incomes, and generally have a higher level of education.
You can read the full results of the study here.
It feels a little bit like Kabam is attaching a new label to traditional gamers who also happen to play hardcore social games. Then again, the information about HSGs spending less on traditional games is a very interesting tidbit.
