Trendspotting: Homelanders Favor Video Games

NewsWire: 5/1/21

• In a new survey on entertainment, 14- to 24-year-olds ranked video games their #1 activity. Watching movies and TV at home came in fifth; among all the other age groups surveyed, this was the top pick. (Variety)
• NH: Deloitte just released the 15th edition of their Digital Media Trends Survey. In the report, they identify each generation's favorite form of digital entertainment. Movies and television came in at number one for Boomers (39%), Gen Xers (29%), and Millennials (18%). But for Gen Z (ages 14 to 24), it came in dead last (10%).
• The youngest consumers instead ranked video games as their favorite activity (26%). Millennials also ranked gaming high (16%), only two percentage points lower than movies. 
• IMO, this news isn’t surprising. I often discuss the growing popularity of esports/video games among younger generations. It’s both social and fits into their optimization-driven world view. (See “It’s Game On for Esports” and “Esports Continues to Skyrocket.”)
• Deloitte doesn’t report video game favorability by gender. But other surveys show that players at all ages split roughly 60% male and 40% female. For younger age brackets, however, the gender gap is narrower. A survey by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada found that among gamers ages 13-17, 53% are boys and 47% are girls.
• Older generations sometimes assume boys dominate the youth gaming community because of its competitive nature. And yes, there are competitive venues like Twitch that are more popular among young males. But most games played by Homelanders tend to be non-competitive roleplaying games like Animal Crossing or Minecraft. And they are equally appealing to all genders. 
• To illustrate the industry’s growing popularity with Homelanders of both genders, look no further than Roblox (RBLX). The platform allows players to create and share their own video games. In November 2020, Roblox had 170M monthly users. And 67% of those players were under the age of 16. As of press time, their stock is up +10% MoM, beating the S&P by six percentage points. For today’s youth, video games aren’t just a fad; they are a way of life.

Did You Know?

• Make Way for Influencers. During the pandemic, Americans have spent a lot of their leisure time at home watching TV. But according to a new study from analytics firm Tubular Labs, young viewers (ages 13 to 24) are much more likely to be watching influencer-created content from popular channels like MrBeast and Viral Queens. Tubular Labs analyzed the viewership across the top 10 influencer and broadcast accounts on YouTube and Facebook in March, as well as the number of minutes watched across the top 1,000 influencer, media, and brand accounts over the past year. Researchers found that in March alone, the top 10 influencer channels reached 29% of this age group with 150 million unique viewers. The top 10 broadcast channels, in contrast, only reached 14%, with 71 million unique viewers. The viewership for influencer content has also grown much faster (+26%) than the viewership for broadcast content (+3%) over the past year.