Grand Theft Hours

Hours spent gaming is increasing among young men and women in the US, with the average jumping from 1.1 to 1.8 hours for men and 0.2 to 0.5 for women from 2019-2022. This is driven by both a larger share of people gaming, and more time spent per active gamer. For instance, the share of young men gaming has risen from 36% in 2019 to 53% in 2022 and from 12% to 18% for women. Interestingly, there was a substantial increase in average hours playing games among women in 2017, but we have so far been unable to learn why this was. The original source (US BLS), Google, and even ChatGPT (we would have expected it to make something up) did not reveal the reason.

Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 2023. Year 2020 interpolated due to missing data.