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Nintendo CEO talks Switch sales, sales outlook, and user age/gender demographics

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/04/2...ch-sales-sales-outlook-u-s-user-demographics/
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima had plenty to share in Nintendo’s financial results briefing for fiscal year ending March 2017. Here are some interesting tidbits shared for the Nintendo Switch.
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(Here the source is from an Nintendo email survey sent to consumers who linked a Nintendo Account to their Nintendo Switch system. Email recipients: about 800,000 / Response Rate: about 3.5% (as of April 17)
Question: What is the age and gender of the person in your household who had the strongest desire to purchase Nintendo Switch?)
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That gender distribution :/ rip

I think having games like Pokemon and Animal Crossing would go a long way. IIRC the majority of the latter series's audience is female, and the former has a pretty good split too.

Zelda series I always figured had a good split too but it seems like early adoption is being driven by the 30-something dude crowd at the moment. Hopefully the net will widen with time, once the launch rush is over, etc.
 

Deft Beck

Member
The age portion of the graph makes sense, given the initial marketing of the Switch trailers, but the gender disparity is...curious.
 
Whoa at that gender distribution, I remember reading back in the day about how the DS was getting both sexes into the gaming action.

I wonder why it skewered towards males so heavily.
 

Peltz

Member
I thought the age aspect was interesting. The largest age group is in their late 20s/early 30s. Most people who don't like Nintendo think it's for kids, but the demographical data doesn't lie.
 

jdstorm

Banned
Gender distribution seems wierd since anecdotally Nintendo is by far the most popular platform with the women i know.

I suspect its just a quirk of a supply constrained launch.

Edit: i suspect the reason would be that many couples and familys are playing the switch together, but a male of the household more frequently took the survey.
 
That gender distribution :/ rip

The fine print says it's from an email survey sent to consumers who linked a Nintendo Account to their Switch.

Is it possible that women are less likely to mess with accounts and linking and such, and that could be a partial reason for the disparity? Or perhaps are less likely to fill out email surveys about video games, for whatever reason?


I thought the age aspect was interesting. The largest age group is in their late 20s/early 30s. Most people who don't like Nintendo think it's for kids, but the demographical data doesn't lie.

It's specifically the purchaser, not the primary player in the household. Parents buying for kids is an easy conclusion, even if it might not be the whole picture.
 

Nanashrew

Banned
The gender ratio will adjust over time when the software grows and has the relevant games like Pokemon and Animal Crossing.

But those are a lot of millennials I see in that graph
 

BigDug13

Member
IMO, Guys are hardcore enough about stuff like this to camp out and go to extreme lengths to get the system when it's extremely hard to get. The gender breakdown after the system is widely available for everyone to walk into a store to buy one will tell the tale better.
 

Madness

Member
Yeah, thats weird.

Not really. People just like to pretend otherwise. It is also esely in gen, more males likely to get at launch. I worked Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 launch. Probably was 99% guys camped out, and guys buying with the odd mom coming in to buy the console. Obviously a decade since then. Things are changing, more girls and women are playing than ever before, but as always, mobile/handheld tends to skew percentage over home console. Not also surprising is that 25 to 34 year olds are the largest audience. The same people who were children or teens during NES, SNES and N64 eras and have the most nostalgia.

I think though as more games come, Animal Crossing, Pokemon you will see the demographics slightly change. Maybe more usage around portability. As for the response rate, 28k is a decent sample size.
 
Wasn't the advertising aimed exactly at that age group?

It seemed like they were trying to market BOTW at the "hardcore male gamer" group (just look at that Superbowl ad) and 1-2 Switch for families and kids. But the latter didn't seem to be nearly as effective considering the two games' sales and buzz.

BOTW's marketing was also kind of a missed opportunity; it didn't really hone in on how women love the series too.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's marketing seems more gender/age-neutral though, which is good because that series has always been universally beloved.
 
IMO, Guys are hardcore enough about stuff like this to camp out and go to extreme lengths to get the system when it's extremely hard to get. The gender breakdown after the system is widely available for everyone to walk into a store to buy one will tell the tale better.

Exactly.
 

pswii60

Member
Males are more likely to be early adopters than females, so the gender distribution is of no surprise. It'll even out as it matures.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
IMO, Guys are hardcore enough about stuff like this to camp out and go to extreme lengths to get the system when it's extremely hard to get. The gender breakdown after the system is widely available for everyone to walk into a store to buy one will tell the tale better.

^THIS

The people who are going to such great lengths to get a scarce Switch are majority male. With Nintendo's pretty universal appeal, the gender imbalance will be more female dominated once you can walk into a store and pick it up.
 

Harlock

Member
Very nice from Nintendo to share this info. Imagine if Sony and Microsoft did the same. I just wonder if Nintendo open the info to show that the Switch is not another Wii in terms your demographic.
 

Madness

Member
Maybe Nintendo will also stop commercials that show some 8 year old kids show their dad how to play Mario or Zelda when that dad probably grew up playing Link's Awakening or Link to the Past for hours a day.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Very nice from Nintendo to share this info. Imagine if Sony and Microsoft did the same. I just wonder if Nintendo open the info to show that the Switch is not another Wii in terms your demographic.

This screams, "YOU KNOW YOU WANT A PIECE OF THIS THIRD PARTY COMPANIES."
 

Brakke

Banned
Pretty striking. Obviously won't resemble the steady state. Switch had a super weird launch with that 100% Zelda attach rate and basically nothing else.

Do you have evidence of this?

This very OP? "People who put in the effory to buy a console that's hard to get in order to play one game" is a reasonable definition for "core", no?
 

udivision

Member
People buying a console in March for Zelda are gonna be the corest of the coreys in the house.

Once the Animal Crossing and Pokemon and (more) Mario games drop, and the Christmas season arrive, things will change.

Why is that?

Guess the demographics of the hardcore gamer.
 

Xdrive05

Member
Early adopters tend to be more "hardcore". I'm sure the gender gap will shrink once more software and stock is available.

Yeah this is what I'm thinking too, with "hardcore" biasing more towards males still. It should lean toward the overall gender usage trends more as time goes on.

The interesting stat will be how those numbers look in 3 or 4 years, compared to the other platforms, and to the industry as a whole.
 
Worth noting that the gender distribution is based on the purchaser of the console. So at least some of that 90% is likely to be husbands or boyfriends who were the ones to buy the console, even while usage wise they count as being two people or more (if they have kids and such). Otherwise it just doesn't count what people might consider as joint purposes (ie, hubby bought it but it's for both of them).

I mean, still a long ways to go and it would be good to see the needle shift further as the system's install base grows, but worth keeping that sort of thing in mind.
 

Maximo

Member
Zelda has a pretty huge female following tho

Of course should have added there are other factors like supply constraint and males are usually more *Hardcore* more likely the ones snatching up the supply, plus couples family sharing ect. Alot of games that have more of a female sway are not on the system yet, or hell perhaps they happy with the 3DS still and will come later.
 

Brakke

Banned
Worth noting that the gender distribution is based on the purchaser of the console. So at least some of that 90% is likely to be husbands or boyfriends who were the ones to buy the console, even while usage wise they count as being two people or more (if they have kids and such). Otherwise it just doesn't count what people might consider as joint purposes (ie, hubby bought it but it's for both of them).

I mean, still a long ways to go and it would be good to see the needle shift further as the system's install base grows, but worth keeping that sort of thing in mind.

This isn't true at all. "These are the results of an Internet survey that was given to consumers in the U.S. market who had linked a Nintendo Account to their Nintendo Switch system after launch." Seems to me that respondents are more likely to be the actual primary users of the console.
 
Whats up with that Gender Ratio? I distinctly recall the Wii and especially the DS being very popular with women.

Is it cause most early buyers are hardcore fans?
 
Whoa at that gender distribution, I remember reading back in the day about how the DS was getting both sexes into the gaming action.

I wonder why it skewered towards males so heavily.

Early adopters will most likely be game enthusiasts, and therefore most likely male, later in the life cycle this will change of course
 
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