March 28th, 2022, Rishad Dsouza
YouGov explores the distinguishing characteristics of strategy gamers compared to gamers in general, using data from YouGov Profiles.
Strategy gamers in this piece are defined as Brits who say they play strategy games of the likes of Starcraft, Command and Conquer, Halo Wars and Civilisation on either a console or PC. We compare them against ‘all genre gamers’ characterised by Brits who play any genre on either a console or PC.
A stronger affinity for augmented reality and more welcoming of tech advancements
Seven out of ten strategy gamers (69%) say “augmented reality is useful to people due to its real-world applications”, compared to three in five of the wider gamer group (61%). A similar proportion of them (68%) agree that augmented and/or virtual reality allows people to experience products or services before buying them (vs 62% of all gamers).
This extra accommodative stance towards AR dovetails with this group’s tendency to generally be more welcoming of fresh technology. More than half of them (55%) say that “technological progress is a force for good”, compared to two in five consumers from the wider gamers group (43%).
They tend to be somewhat wary of excessive advertising
Strategy gamers tend to be somewhat more wary of advertising than gamers in general. Four in five of them (83%) say they skip through ads on programmes they’ve recorded as compared to three quarters of ‘all genre gamers’ (76%).
They’re also likelier to say they don’t trust TV adverts (52% vs 46%) and that they feel bombarded by advertising (69% vs 64%). On a similar note, only a fifth of strategy gamers trust advertising they see on posters/billboards (20%), well behind all genre gamers (31%) in this regard.
How do they find out about new games?
More than a third of strategy gamers learn about new games from friends (36%) compared to just a quarter of all genre gamers (25%). They are also likelier to get their gaming updates from online shops (48% vs 38%) and from gaming websites (39% vs 29%).
A third of them (32%) find out about new titles from influencers on platforms like YouTube and Twitch, compared to a quarter of all gamers (25%) who learn about games in that way.
Methodology
YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data and rolling surveys, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Profiles data is nationally representative and weighted by age, gender, education, region, and race. Learn more about Profiles.