Teenagers Surveyed On Declining Game Use

Piper Jaffray has announced the results of its 10th bi-annual proprietary research survey on teen spending habits and retail brand perceptions, titled "Taking Stock With Teens", which dealt with fashion and technology but also video game-related questions for North American teenagers. Klinefelter and team conducted mall research field trips with approximately 700 teens from 11 high schools in nine states across the country. Additionally, the team surveyed another 2,270 students in 41 states and Canada through a partnership with the national DECA organization in an online survey. With particular reference to video games, results of the survey point out that 79 percent of surveyed student households have at least one video game platform, and 58 percent of students state that they are occasional game players (playing at least monthly). In addition, in an interesting insight into teen trends, 65 percent of student households own Sony's PlayStation 2, 50 percent own Microsoft's Xbox and just 26 percent own Nintendo's GameCube. GameStop was recognized in the survey as the leading retailer for pre-owned video games with 60 percent market share, and 29 percent market share for new video game purchases. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, the survey also revealed that, in the sample of North American teenagers that Piper Jaffray surveyed, 75 percent of teens say that their interest in video games is declining, and 78 percent indicated they spent less time playing in 2005.