Ofcom has published its annual report into the UK’s online habits – including plenty of stats for how many of us are now playing online games, paying for subscriptions, and trying to beat Wordle.
39 percent of UK adults aged 16 or over play games online, Ofcom says, with 56 percent of children aged three to 15 playing games online. The average time spent each week playing games online was 7 hours and 33 minutes, including PC, console, VR and smartphone gaming.
These figures come from Ofcom surveys completed in late 2021, so after formal lockdowns had ended, Ofcom noted. In general, there was a dip in the amount of time younger people played online games year-on-year, though a growth in time spent playing online games for those aged 55-64.
More than half – 58 percent – of those who played games online were now subscribed to at least one games subcription service, such as Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus.
In the UK, PlayStation Plus had 3.2 million subscribers in Q4 2021, according to Ampere Games research quoted by Ofcom. This compares to 2.6 million Xbox Game Pass subscribers, a further 1.5 million Xbox Live Gold subscribers, and 1.49 million Nintendo Switch Online owners.
Smartphones beat games consoles as the most commonly-used device for adults to play games. 37 percent of UK adults play games using a smartphone, compared to 30 percent on a games console.
Consoles are far more widely used by young people – with 60 percent of 16-24 year olds and 59 percent among children aged 3-15 years old.
Research from Childwise quoted by Ofcom states that 14 percent of UK children aged 5-16 have access to an Xbox Series X/S, compared to 10 percent of children the same age with a PlayStation 5 at home. A third of all console-owning households had a Nintendo Switch.