The ESA says 227 million Americans play games.
The ESA says 227 million Americans play games.
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ESA: U.S. gained 13M gamers during the pandemic

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 5 min

The U.S. has nearly 227 million video game players of all ages, up 5.8% from 214.4 million a year earlier. This is according to an annual report by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the trade group that represents the game industry.

The annual 2021 Essential Facts About the Video Game Industry report shows that more people play video games than ever before and that players are engaged, diverse, and reflective of American society. The ESA released the report’s findings on July 13 in conjunction with the 2021 online-only Games for Change event this week.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.