Research Says There Are Eight Types Of Gamer. Which Are You?

Gaming is now a bigger industry than Hollywood, so it should come as no surprise that it attracts a range of personalities. The average gamer is no longer the greasy-haired teen, mashing buttons on his control pad, night after night. It’s all of us.

Recently, researchers at Newzoo decided to look at the makeup of gamers a little more closely, so see whether there were different “types.” Their research threw up some thought-provoking results. The vast majority of players fit into eight categories.

These categories are:

• The time filler
• The popcorn gamer
• The hardware enthusiast
• The conventional player
• The cloud gamer
• The all-around enthusiast
• The backseat viewer
• The ultimate gamer

You can probably guess what some of these gamers are like, but others will need a little explanation. According to Newzoo, the most common type of gamer is the time filler – people who don’t really care about gaming per se but use it to fill time, anyway. These are the people you see on the bus with their eyes hooked on Candy Crush and bitcoin casino games. They need something to divert their attention from the monotony of their situation.

The second most popular is the “cloud gamer.” As you might guess, these guys like getting their video games piped to them through the internet. They’re not bothered about having the best hardware or even a pleasant experience. All they want is to try the game in all its glory and enjoy it at a low price. This group of people is in luck. The launch of Google’s Stadia and other cloud streaming services means that gaming just got a lot cheaper.

The next most common gamer was the so-called “ultimate gamer,” comprising around 13 percent of the total population. These people dedicate their time, money, and energy to gaming. For them, it is not just a way to burn a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon, but a reason for living. After that came the popcorn gamer, also comprising 13 percent of the total population. These guys are a little different from regular gamers. Instead of playing games themselves, they prefer spectating. These are the people who are responsible for the growth of esports – competitive video game competitions.

The hardware gamer was the next on the list. These are the people who don’t mind going out and blowing $5,000 on the ultimate gaming rig. For them, nothing but the very best experience will do. Don’t be surprised if they drop more than $1,000 on a graphics card. The backseat gamer is the person who used to play a lot of video games but doesn’t do so as much anymore. They knew all the games ten years ago, but now they’ve been out of the loop for too long focusing on other priorities to be any good.

The all-around enthusiast is somebody who likes playing video games but has more of a balanced life than the ultimate gamer. They don’t mind seeing friends, whereas the latter sees it as a waste of time.