• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Pew Research Poll suggests Console gaming is slowly dying

M

Maninthemirror

Banned
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/29/technology-device-ownership-2015/

Growth since 2009. with the original gamers getting older, the older generation is giving up gaming while the rise in population has not reflected in the growth of the console industry as gaming became more mainstream
xvYy4iu.png


2010 - 62% ownership
2013 - 71% ownership
2015 - 56% ownership
0XzY216.png

PC has seen a smaller drop in comparison

the owners of modern day consoles
bCyoS9R.png
 
Everyone here will tell you this is BS without even looking at it and cite the Playststion 4, ignoring the rest of the industry factors.
 
Edag88 said:
Everyone here will tell you this is BS without even looking at it and cite the Playststion 4, ignoring the rest of the industry factors.
Click to expand...

I'm sure you've read this post deeply, considering you responded a minute after it was posted with a straw man argument.
 
Console ownership went up from 2010 to 2013 before going back down in 2015. Do they have any comments on a cyclical nature? What this tells me as smartphones and tablets reach saturation, the console market and PC market haven't budged much. Almost as if they don't really directly impact each other.
 
It's not dying, it's contracting. Which still sucks, but consoles are going to be around for quite awhile longer. Plus, it's entirely possible a new innovation will come forth to breath new life into the industry (VR? NX?)
 
That graph looks pretty flat... but the lack of growth is not surprising... the current model (which is retail dependent) doesn't fit consumers desire to have instant access to everything and have all in one machines as their devices.

Home consoles must become more like Apple TV before it's the other way around... or that flat line will become a steep decline.
 
anexanhume said:
Console ownership went up from 2010 to 2013 before going back down in 2015. Do they have any comments on a cyclical nature?
Click to expand...

Considering an example that Xbox 360 launched in 2005, the overall console ownership being 61% in 2010 5 years later, while going up in 2013 when the new consoles launched. one would think the ownership of consoles overall would go up but its pace has decelerated.

Especially when you consider that each year gaming becomes more and more mainstream one would imagine the number staying at 71% ownership but it dropped to 56% while becoming more mainstream and while consoles were still relatively new. which only suggests people dropped consoles faster than they adopted consoles after the new generation
 
Dragon said:
I'm sure you've read this post deeply, considering you responded a minute after it was posted with a straw man argument.
Click to expand...

It would be good to look further into the post and graphs, yeah. But let's not pretend that doesn't happen and has happened the last couple of threads where there was a thing discussing console decline. IIRC the OP in one of the previous threads had to edit their post because people got so worked up about "consoles are dying" and so many posts used PS4 sales to show that it's not.
 
DiipuSurotu said:
Cellphones are still more widespread than smartphones? mind blown
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that indicates that 92% of people own mobile phone and 62 points of that 92% are represented by smartphones, which leaves 30% of people who just have non-smartphone mobile phones.

With 62 being much larger than 30, I would say that old school cell phones are not more widespread than smartphones, actually.
 
OrbitalBeard said:
It's not dying, it's contracting. Which still sucks, but consoles are going to be around for quite awhile longer. Plus, it's entirely possible a new innovation will come forth to breath new life into the industry (VR? NX?)
Click to expand...

People certainly seem to be betting on VR to bring new life to the industry, but that will depend on a lot of factors - price and software being the big two. Too early to predict what impact VR will have on the industry.

The Technomancer said:
Yeah its easy to look at sales numbers month to month and think everything is fine, but trends are not looking good
Click to expand...
The main problem is people say the industry is healthy if you remove the Wii factor.
 
I'm not surprised MP3 players are on decline. Tablets and Smartphones can basically be that function in way.
 
I don't PC game now, but if there ever comes a time consoles go the way of the dinosaurs I'll gladly jump on the PC boat.

I'll be damned if I get my gaming done through shitty gatcha mobile games.
 
From the article:

"Some 14% of U.S. adults have a portable gaming device such as a PSP or Sega Genesis game player..."

Ladies and gentlemen, the Sega Nomad!

Also, the headline/OP is confusing stagnant with "dying". The same article describes how smart phone usage is reaching saturation with young adults, but doesn't say that it's "dying" with that group, implying that they know the difference and are trying to advance a narrative.

IOW the stats are interesting, the headlines are misleading. It would be better to say "Survey reports no growth in dedicated consoles over the last 5 years"
 
NateDrake said:
People certainly seem to be betting on VR to bring new life to the industry, but that will depend on a lot of factors - price and software being the big two. Too early to predict what impact VR will have on the industry.
Click to expand...

VR is in a super awkward position. The people who really care about VR and will be early adopters are the kinds of people who want to use it on PC. The first five years of the market are going to be...interesting
 
SystemBug said:
yep.

industry has been on the decline for years
Click to expand...

Is it on the decline or has it hit a saturation point? Even if the market is saturated, when tens of millions of devices exist in the wild, the user base is more than large enough to support the platform. So, isn't this article hyperbolic to say the least?
 
Muppet of a Man said:
Is it on the decline or has it hit a saturation point? Even if the market is saturated, when tens of millions of devices exist in the wild, the user base is more than large enough to support the platform. So, isn't this article hyperbolic to say the least?
Click to expand...

No company is satisfied with selling the same number of units every five years. If they can't keep selling more consoles every cycle they'll turn their attention elsewhere (or, as we're already seeing, find ways to squeeze even more money out of the existing userbase)
 
OrbitalBeard said:
It's not dying, it's contracting. Which still sucks, but consoles are going to be around for quite awhile longer. Plus, it's entirely possible a new innovation will come forth to breath new life into the industry (VR? NX?)
Click to expand...

Pretty much. After so many years of accelerated growth and evolution, now comes the time of contraction and see who adapts to these changes.
 
I wouldn't call it "dying". More like "stagnant". Which, as far as many businesses are concerned, is basically "dying" given the "grow constantly or bust" mentality but it could be worse.
 
Have some 10 or so nieces and nephews among my giant ass family.
Every single one of them loves a tablet or phone of some kind and rather than play on my older consoles or newer handhelds they'd rather play on a phone/tablet.

Just a sign of the times, it's much easier for parents to hand them a tablet and they do way more on them than they would on a DS for instance. They get to play games and mess around on youtube. Next generation of kids are gonna be interesting.
 
JinjoUnchained said:
From the article:

"Some 14% of U.S. adults have a portable gaming device such as a PSP or Sega Genesis game player..."

Ladies and gentlemen, the Sega Nomad!

Also, the headline/OP is confusing stagnant with "dying". The same article describes how smart phone usage is reaching saturation with young adults, but doesn't say that it's "dying" with that group, implying that they know the difference and are trying to advance a narrative.

IOW the stats are interesting, the headlines are misleading. It would be better to say "Survey reports no growth in dedicated consoles over the last 5 years"
Click to expand...

I used the word dying because as the industry became more and more mainstream, the numbers were not sustained and there is nothing yet released which would suggests the numbers are growing such as smartphones. we often say PCs are are dying and many agree they are, yet when the stats for both are somewhat similar, we use dying for one and stagnant for another
 
laughs at the "Some College" percentage...

I wonder how much correlation there is between too much gaming and dropping out of College.
 
OrbitalBeard said:
It's not dying, it's contracting. Which still sucks, but consoles are going to be around for quite awhile longer.
Click to expand...
This is probably the better conclusion. There's a million things competing for a persons time and different people are going to gravitate to different forms of entertainment. Some kids are going to really into console games, while others will really like cellphone game, sports, or some other thing. This stuff will eventually normalize and there will be a different number indicating a "healthy" sized market, until there's some other thing that happens that changes how people spend their time. The console and PC market might eventually go away, but imagine it would collapse under its own weight rather than slowly die, at least based on how companies go about their business now.
 
Could this be explained by all the households that used to have a Wii that no longer do? I see this as a lot of casuals, it seems hardcore numbers are stable.

Basically gaming lost a lot of Wii gamers in the period between 2010 and 2015 to facebook and smartphones.
 
Why do these thread titles always assume the US is the only audience for anything?

It's also bizarre that it's adults only, when games consoles are also used by children. I realise they wanted a comparison and adults are an easier metric to gain, but it isn't reflected in the thread title. 'Dying' is also sensationalist.

How about 'poll suggests console ownership falling amongst US adults over last two years'.
 
Looking at this chart alone:

xvYy4iu.png


Consoles dropped well below 40 percent in 2009 or 2010 and rebounded almost instantly. 1 percent lower than the start of measurement doesn't tell a whole lot when fluctuations from 37 (?) to 42 look like they've happened in the past 6 years. Really, the chart itself says nothing, but this data is still worrying because of the lack of increase. From the article itself

Some 40% of adults report having a game console, a number that has not budged in five years.
Click to expand...

That's not a decline....
 
The term 'owning' doesn't mean a hell of a lot in some cases. I own an MP3 player, it's been sitting in drawer somewhere for the last few years, just like millions of others.

There was a study out a while ago that claimed people are reading digitally less than they did in the past because e-reader sales were down. No shit, people read on tablets and phones now.

But ya, the PS 4 isn't going to sell enough to offset what the three consoles sold last gen.
 
I wouldn't say dying, but declining.

Dying is too sensationalistic. Japan is seeing this too by making more PC native games.
 
Considering that by far the biggest factor in console gaming growth is completely missing this generation - the Nintendo Wii - I'd disagree. X1, PS4 and Wii U managed to stay at pretty much the same userbase without the utter phenomenon that was the Wii. I'd consider that a success.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
What if Capcom makes their own console?
Poll  2
93
1K
BennyBlanco replied
  • Poll
Most reliable Disc based Console?
Poll  2
67
1K
tanners replied
  • Poll
PC gamers, will you buy a PlayStation now that the single player games are going back to console only?
Poll  4 5 6 7 8
389
3K
Sentenza replied
[IGN] Stellar Blade Dev Hails Its Performance on Steam, but New Research Suggests the 'Novelty' of Playing PlayStation Games on PC Is 'Wearing Off'
Opinion  2 3
146
3K
calico replied
  • Poll
Project Helix "might be Microsoft's last attempt to make their hardware business work," analyst suggests: "Nobody believes another if this fails."
Opinion Poll  2 3
114
1K
neocycle replied
Top Bottom