Long tagged the pursuit of choice for teenage males, the profile of today’s gamer casts a broad demographic net, reports Ad Age. Today, teenagers account for only 17 percent.

Surprisingly, women represent 42 percent of gamers and typically play casual, single-person games online. And finally, 80 percent of online gamers hail from middle class backgrounds, pulling in between $35,000 to $75,000 per year.

Seventeen percent of gamers keep online casinos afloat, while at the other end of the spectrum, 20 percent of gamers include kids aged 6 to 12. Fifty-four percent of gamers are console owners, while 41 percent are on a handheld system, like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

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29% of all downloaded mobile games were downloaded by adults 25-34

According to The NPD Group, in an average month more than 29 mln consumers play video games on their mobile phones and more than 7 mln download games to mobile devices. These days, however, you’ll find more adults than teens interacting with mobile games. In fact, consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 not only download more games than any other age group, but also play them more and are more likely to plan to purchase additional games in the future. In 2006 29% of games were downloaded by consumers aged 25 to 34, followed by those aged 18 to 24 (27%), and teens between the ages of 13 and 17 (15%). NPD noted a similar trend in relation to game playing activity. Half of mobile gamers between the ages of 25 and 34 and the same%age of those between the ages of 18 and 24 report playing a game on their mobile device at least once a day. By comparison, just 41% of teens exhibited similar behavior.

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Video Game Ads Shoot for High Score

It’s getting easier to reach players during play.

Video game advertising spending will pass $2 billion in 2012, up from $370 million in 2006, according to Parks Associates‘ “Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home: Game Advertising” report.

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Retail sales are one of several factors determining the video games’ advertising reach. The “GaMeasure” report, released by Interpret, outlines a discrepancy between sales numbers and a game’s actual reach.

When the impact of social gameplay, rental, used game sales, and pass-around numbers are considered, the number of impressions is raised. Activision’s “Call of Duty 3″ sold 2 million units in the U.S. as of February 3 of this year, according to NPD Group data. Yet the study estimates the game’s reach at nearly 9 million gamers, or 4 percent of the total U.S. population. A game requiring multiple players, such as EA’s “Madden NFL 2007,” sold a reported 6 million units, though interpret data say 14 million have played the game, or 7 percent of the total U.S. population.

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Global in-game advertising market, which generated $77.7 mln globally in 2006, continues to develop at an exponential rate. By 2011, worldwide in-game advertising expenditures (fixed product placement/static ads and dynamic ads) will grow to $971.3 mln. Spending on traditional advertising media (television, newspapers, radio and magazines) grew $3.6 bln in 2006 while spending on internet advertising grew $4.3 bln, Yankee Group says.

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