Global: A quarter of consumers now playing in excess of 7 hours of mobile phone games a week

According to latest data from YouGov Global Profiles, one in four global consumers (25%) is playing at least seven hours of video games on their mobile or handheld device each week. While most people play less – a third say they play fewer than seven hours – a sizeable proportion (and more in some markets) are dedicating the equivalent of a working day to mobile gaming every week.

Data reveals that consumers in Asian markets are likely to spend more time playing every week. Consumers in Taiwan (6%), Hong Kong (4%) and Philippines (4%) are the most likely of all to say they spend more than 35 hours a week playing video games.

The public in Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Spain are likelier to spend 7-14 hours a week gaming on their handheld devices but it’s in China where people are most likely to be found crouched over a game. Nearly one in five Chinese play 7-14 hours (18%), with a further ten percent playing 14-21 hours each week. Overall, nearly four in ten Chinese consumers (39%) are playing in excess of seven hours each week. A 2019 law limits the amount of time children can play video games but, as the data shows, no such limits apply to adults.

Most of the markets polled register at least one in ten consumers who spend 30 minutes up to 1 hour every week on video games. South Africa registers 17% of consumers who say they spend 30 minutes to one hour in an average week, the highest in all markets. On the other hand, Germany and Great Britain poll only around one in 20 consumers (7% and 6% respectively), the least in all markets. In both countries, mobile and handheld gaming is currently taking up relatively less time for consumers compared to the other markets in our poll.

Around one in 20 Brits say they play for seven to 14 hours every week (5%), while 13% say they play for one to seven hours, the least of all markets in both sections. Like Brits, survey data indicates that consumers in Germany are also less likely to spend more than 30 minutes every week playing video games. The country registers 14% of consumers who spend one to seven hours every week playing video games.

Consumers in Canada and US have a similar affinity towards mobile/handheld video games. Fewer than one in ten consumers in both countries spend 30 minutes to one hour (9% each) and seven to 14 hours (8% Canada and 9% US) every week.

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Methodology: YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 43 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ in China and 18+ in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.