NPD: Average Age Of Kids Playing Mobile Games Is Getting Younger

As mobile games and their technology advance throughout the years, the more our youth will have access to them. It is quite common for parents to hand off old tablets and phones to their children when the adults go in to exchange for an upgraded model. That could be the determining factor in an NPD study (unearthed by VentureBeat) that reports the average age that kids start playing mobile games is now 8. This age is one year younger than 9, which was the average entry year for mobile gamers in the 2011 report.

While this may be initially alarming for console and PC gamers, it shouldn’t be. The price for both the devices and their mobile games are considerably cheaper than those on the more hardcore gaming devices. Additionally, parents who aren’t as likely to play games themselves can still uses these mobile devices for non-gaming purposes, give them to their children and install games onto their handed-down devices so that their kids can play on them. It makes sense that the starting age for mobile gaming is getting younger.

Besides, PC and console gaming are still used dominantly in the gaming industry, although they are starting to lose their placement in the market. It’s not all bad, though. Seemingly every week there is a classic title being ported to mobile gaming devices. This can allow kids easier access to awesome old-school games, like Chrono Trigger, Earthworm Jim, Sonic The Hedgehog and Secret Of Mana. Our young console gamers aren’t disappearing; they are just adding a wider breadth of devices to their collection.