Computer games take off in the US

Sixty per cent of all Americans regularly play computer games, and if past trends are anything to go by, Europe is fast catching up.

According to a survey by Peter Hart Research Associates for the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), three in five (60 per cent) of Americans aged six or older - about 145 million people - say they routinely play computer games. Surprisingly, nearly half of these game players (43 per cent) are female. The average age of the game players is 28.

IDSA president Douglas Lowenstein said: "It used to be just the boy next door, but the profile of today's gamer can't be so easily typecast. The new face of gamers is a major reason why interactive entertainment is a growing and influential force that's shaping our culture, redefining entertainment, pushing technology forward and helping to power the hi-tech economy."

The number of consumers playing computer games enabled the games industry to file record sales in 1999. According to data provided by the NPD Group, more than 215 million computer games were sold worldwide last year - a 19 per cent increase over 1998 sales levels. This is the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth for the industry and an increase of more than 100 per cent since 1996.

Lowenstein said worldwide entertainment software sales topped $6.1bn in 1999 - an increase of 11 per cent from the $5.5bn sales accumulated in 1998. Specifically, video game sales grew to $4.2bn, a 13.5 per cent increase from 1998, and PC games sales rose from $1.8bn in 1998 to $1.9bn in 1999.