Digital Australia 2020: The Power of Games

Key insights

7 takeaways

01
Roughly two-thirds of Australians play video games, nine in ten households have owned a game device since 2009, and the average adult player has been gaming for about twelve years, according to the Bond University and IGEA study based on a February 2019 survey of 1,210 households and 3,228 individuals.
02
Australian video game retail sales reached $4.03 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent since 2013, and nearly three-quarters of adults believe game development adds value to the economy.
03
The player base is maturing and diversifying: the average player's age has risen to around 34, and women make up 47 percent of players.
04
Gaming is highly social, with 83 percent of adult players playing with others, often in person or online, and most parents who game with their children do so for fun and family time.
05
Augmented reality is used in 77 percent of game households and virtual reality in 21 percent, with 87 percent of respondents expecting these technologies to matter for future play.
06
Parents' main concerns center on loot boxes, in-game purchasing, and excessive use, yet awareness gaps persist: many are uncertain about classification ratings, fewer than one in five use online store age ratings, and 42 percent use family controls.
07
Players cite fun, passing time, de-stressing, and keeping the mind active as their primary motivations, and roughly one in four adults creates game-related content.

Summary

Digital Australia 2020: The Power of Games, produced by Bond University and the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA), establishes that video gaming has become a normalised feature of everyday Australian life. Drawing on a February 2019 survey of 1,210 households and 3,228 individuals, the study finds that roughly two-thirds of Australians play games, nine in ten households have owned a game device since 2009, and the average adult player has been gaming for about twelve years. Players cite fun, passing time, de-stressing, and keeping the mind active as their primary motivations, and the report frames these outcomes within broader claims about wellbeing, education, and family connection.

The research documents a maturing and increasingly diverse player base. The average player's age has risen slowly to around 34, and women now make up 47 percent of players. Augmented reality is used in 77 percent of game households and virtual reality in 21 percent, with 87 percent of respondents expecting these technologies to matter for future play. Gaming is also highly social: 83 percent of adult players play with others, often in the same room or online, and most parents who game with their children do so for fun and family time. Parental concerns center on loot boxes, in-game purchasing, and excessive use, although most parents report familiarity with Australian classification labels.

Engagement with game-related culture is broadening as well. Most adult players consume walkthroughs or gameplay videos, and roughly one in four adults creates game-related content. Awareness gaps persist among parents, however, with many uncertain about classification ratings and fewer than one in five using online store age ratings, while 42 percent use family controls. On the economic side, the report points to Australian video game retail sales of $4.03 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent since 2013, and finds that nearly three-quarters of adults believe game development adds value to the economy. Overall, the study presents gaming as a mainstream cultural and economic force, while identifying parental information and in-game purchasing as areas requiring continued attention.