Who inhabits the worlds MMORPG

Millions of people play multiplayer online games all over the world, they spend over $ 2 billion annually on this hobby. Much of the money falls on the segment of players who communicate in Russian. But who are these people?
A week ago, I initiated a study with the results of which I would like to introduce you. I think that the conclusions may surprise many. ;)

There is an opinion, both among the players and among outsiders, that the world of multiplayer online games is inhabited by people with extremely limited vital interests, the so-called “zadrots”. However, according to the results of my research, it turned out that among fans of MMORPs there is only 10%. And the share of schoolchildren “zadrotov” does not exceed 4% in the total aggregate of players.
The main part of the MMORPG community is made up of adults who have consciously chosen this hobby. In addition to games, they are addicted to other things, from reading books and creativity to alcohol and other things, “opensourec'a of the brain”.

In addition to the general characteristics of the community and individual groups, you will also find various interesting observations under the cut, for example, that two thirds of women playing online games are busy. :(

As I wrote above, the bulk of the gaming community is made up of people over 23 years old, they account for about 50% of the players, another 30% are students (universities, colleges), and the remaining 20% ​​are schoolchildren. These proportions may vary depending on the particular game.
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Over 90% of players are men. Approximately 40% of players have a girlfriend, young man, or they are married.

Most of all in MMORPG, people like to communicate with other players, and 7.5% of respondents indicated that this is the only thing that prefers them.


According to the time spent in the game, people are divided approximately 50 by 50 into “casual and hardcore”:


It is worth noting that among people who spend more than 40 hours a week on a game, 58% consider it harmful, which is a quarter higher than the norm. However, only 11.4% is going to throw the game, that is, 28% less than the norm.

About 65% of the players pay only the monthly fee, only 10% puts extra money into the game. About 20% do not spend any money on the game at all. And 2% indicated that they even earn money by playing MMORPG.

Favorite hobby of fans of online games can be called reading books and watching movies, and close the top three sports. I note that men are related to sports by themselves, and women by creativity.

Most MMORPG players find their hobby harmless:


The top five most popular games among Russian-speaking players are: World of Warcraft , Lineage 2 , Aion , Allods Online , RF Online .

So why it seems that in the MMORPG plays mainly „zadroty“, while the students? There is nothing surprising. Firstly, they spend a lot of time in the game, two to three times more than ordinary players, that is, the chance to cross with them is high, even though they are relatively small. Secondly, due to the age peculiarities of the psyche, schoolchildren require a lot of attention, which is expressed in aggressive and expressive behavior in the game and in the chat. I think that this is the reason for the above conviction.

This is not all the figures obtained during the study. You can download the full text of the study on the People: Russian-speaking community of MMORPG players.pdf In it you will find the results of the survey, a description of the community as a whole, as well as comparisons of individual groups: schoolchildren, students, “adults” and women

In addition, the questionnaire responses are publicly available: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tSOgmIpqr41JmcZLxvkz1Jw&output=html

Thank you for reading to the end! If you have questions, then ask, I will try to answer.