More than half of U.S. millennials surveyed for a recent Deloitte digital media usage study showed they are leaving traditional pay-TV services and subscribing to a video-gaming service.
Deloitte’s 13th annual digital media trends survey was conducted by an independent research firm between December 2018 and February 2019 and polled 2,003 U.S. consumers.
The results found that about 53% of millennials had selected video-gaming subscriptions while 51% are paying for traditional television services like cable and satellite TV. This was down from 52% paying for TV service a year ago, when only 44% said they were paying for subscription video gaming.
Comparatively, overall paid video gaming service subscriptions are used by 30% of U.S. consumers, the study found, and 41% play video games at least weekly.
Close to one-half of millennials and Gen Z members pay for both a gaming service and video streaming services.
The survey classified U.S. millennials as people born between 1983 and 1996.
Interest in subscription video gaming is climbing in the wake of both established and new services coming online for Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation console platforms. As well, gamers are also increasingly moving away from traditional video gaming platforms, such as personal computers (PCs), and using mobile and app-based gaming platforms.
The study said that in 2015, 77% of gamers competed using computers, but gaming on that platform is now down to 48%. In contrast, the proportion of gamers who play on mobile devices grew from 70% in 2015 to around 80% in 2018.
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The report said that “in terms of share of total gaming time, PC gaming has dropped by almost one-half, from 39% in 2015 to 22% in 2018.” This is despite the fact that professional esports continue to champion the PC platform.
In contrast, gaming time on mobile devices grew from 32 percent in 2015 to 47 percent in 2018.
All of this is supplanting time formerly spent watching traditional television programming.
The trend is likely to continue as new serives like Google’s Cloud-based Stadia (a browser-based game streaming service) and Apple’s forthcoming Apple Arcade serivce are planned to launch later this year.
The report predicts that “the growth of mobile gaming is expanding the gamer base and could provide opportunities for Telecom, Media & Entertainment (TM&E) companies, by opening cheaper and easier access to gaming markets,” providing more potential to enter the video gaming market.
By Greg Tarr
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