2004 Web and Downloadable Games White Paper 

IGDA Online Games SIG 

hours of it playing some kind of online game. This has been largely driven by what are called  2

nd

 and 3

rd

tier  cities in the interior of China that lack the social, leisure or entertainment infrastructure of larger cities. 

Japan follows closely as a serious contender to be the next `big' online gaming market in Asia. Broadband 

penetration has hit 14MM subscribers nationwide and averages several hundred thousand new 

subscribers monthly. 

B. 

Consumer Segments 

Women over 40 continued to be the driving force of web and downloadable games in 2003. A recent AOL 

study found that even though men spend more time on the Internet each week than women (23.2 vs. 21.6 

hours), female game players over 40 spend the most hours per week playing online games (9.1 hours or 

41 percent of their online time vs. 6.1 hours   26 percent of their online time   for men). This demographic 

was also more likely to play online games every day than men or teens of either gender.

3

When it comes to purchases of downloadable games the female skew becomes even more significant 

with some sites reporting as much as 70% of sales coming from females over 30. 

3

 AOL DMS Survey conducted 12/4/03 1/12/04 with 3,613 casual online game players interviewed,  

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