More than 60% of people in UK play games - report

The Online Nation Report 2021, published by the UK communications regulator, Ofcom, took a close look at how Britons behave online. It found that:

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• Sixty percent of UK adults aged 16+ and 91% of 3-15 year-olds reported playing games on console, desktop or smartphone devices both either online or offline. Of these players, 56% of adults aged 16+ and 66% of children aged 3-15 reported playing games online.

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• People in the UK spend an average of one hour a day playing games. Overall, the amount of time players aged 13-64 spent playing declined slightly between the start and end of 2021, from an average of 7 hours 43 minutes a week in Q2 to 7 hours 33 minutes in Q4. However, this period saw an increase of 25% in time spent playing games reported by players aged 55-64.

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• Children aged 8-17 reported that playing games online changes their mood positively (58%), makes them feel good about themselves (59%), and makes them feel less lonely (60%).

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• Games were also played with or against other people, as well as individually across the demographics

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• Internationally, people in the UK spend among the most time online, with an average of 3 hours and 37 minutes a day, only exceeded by Canada and the US.

Read the full report.