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Half of Americans play games, but 10% identify themselves as ‘gamers’

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

About half of all American adults say that they play games. But only 10 percent identify themselves as “gamers,” according to a report by the Pew Research Center.

The survey digs into some of the perceptions that we have about video games as a pastime for nerdy young males. I suppose that makes sense, as video games become a bigger part of mass culture. After all, who identifies themselves as a “movier”?

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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.