Working for 20 years, Australia Performs has turn out to be a globally influential gaming survey authority. But it surely now faces new challenges as its information matures.
Bond College’s Professor Jeffrey Model is calm, collected and able to go.
There’s no sense of nervousness or trepidation on a media name discussing his analysis into Australia’s gaming inhabitants. He deftly navigates his findings, declaring the important thing figures and, crucially, its purple herrings.
His tone takes a noticeable shift when he will get to the variety findings, which plainly level out that, in keeping with this research, extra girls in Australia are enjoying videogames than males.
“That is the place one form of falls off their seat once they see a change within the information. And this time, we noticed a change within the information,” Model says.
“I don’t wish to make an excessive amount of of it,” he provides, preempting the headlines.
“For me to be accountable and acknowledge the ups and downs of statistics, as a result of it’s inside the margin of error, our pattern not reflecting good actuality.”
It’s not Professor Model’s first time navigating the nuances of media on considered one of these calls. Removed from it.
Australia Plays, a biennial report into Australia’s gaming inhabitants, has been operating for 20 years, with Professor Model at its helm the complete time.
You’ll be able to’t fault Australia Play’s report’s knack for selecting fascinating motion photographs of individuals gaming. Supply: Australia Performs 2025.
From myth-busting to agenda setting
The research surveys over 1000 households, capturing roughly 2500 people in complete, with candidates stratified to be consultant of Australian demographics.
It’s a broad piece of analysis, asking about gaming habits, sorts of video games performed, and why they sport. This information is then damaged down by age and gender, presenting a granular take a look at the make-up and motivations of Australia’s gaming inhabitants.
As Model explains, it began as an train to show that Australia’s gaming inhabitants extends far past the stereotype of being dominated by teenage boys. It’s since morphed right into a report which each shapes coverage and informs analysis globally. It additionally proved to be instrumental proof within the gaming trade’s profitable bid to ascertain an Australian R18+ ranking for videogames a decade in the past.
The Interactive Gaming and Leisure Affiliation (IGEA), Australia’s peak physique for the online game trade, has backed the report since its inception. Its CEO, Ron Curry, says Australia Performs is globally the longest-running report of its type. Different peak our bodies in different jurisdictions have turned to it for inspiration for their very own related research, and it additionally informs IGEA’s broader coverage efforts, he provides.
“Right now, once we discuss to the federal government about baby security and entry, we are able to level to the truth that 81% of avid gamers are over 18,” Curry says. “That shifts the tone of the dialog fully.”
“We’ve normalised gaming. After we started [in 2005], avid gamers had been the minority. Now it’s those that don’t play who’re the exception,” he says.
The deep, long-running partnership between Bond College and IGEA on the report has prompted previous questions from media concerning the validity of the info. The same level was raised in passing by this column two months in the past.
When requested, Professor Model addressed it head-on.
“Analysis wants to face by itself, nevertheless it additionally wants funding,” he mentioned. “When the federal government commissions analysis, it’s sometimes to information regulation or public coverage. That’s an curiosity too.”
“Sure, IGEA needs to advertise the worth of videogames. However IGEA has additionally been extremely open in letting us design the research independently.”
“We choose the subjects, do the sampling, and use a high-end panel firm, Qualtrics, to handle information assortment. So even that’s at arm’s size. They don’t contact it.”
“We’re upfront that that is self-reported attitudinal and behavioural information. It’s not making theoretical claims. But it surely establishes a baseline that different journalists, teachers and policymakers can construct on. That’s the worth.”
The way forward for Australia Performs
Producing such a long-running report has its challenges. Effort goes into sustaining the headline information: the variety of Australians that sport, the scale and form of Australia’s gaming inhabitants, and different strata on how they interact with the medium. All of this tells a compelling story over time.
The variety of Australians who sport has remained persistently excessive for years. Supply: Australia Performs 2025.
However extra just lately, the info hasn’t elevated or modified that a lot from yr to yr, inserting extra give attention to the specialist areas the report delves into. This iteration targeted on parental play and the way a technology of teenage avid gamers when the report began are actually sharing their passion with their children.
“Ten years in the past, the main target was on web connectivity,” Curry says, referring to an period when the Nationwide Broadband Community rollout was a serious expertise subject in Australia.
“Ten years earlier than that, it was how folks bought their video games — on disc, on console, or elsewhere. Because the trade evolves, so will the report.”
“For instance, if platforms like Roblox take 10% of the market, we’ll have to adapt the questions we ask. The report has to mature, however it’s going to additionally preserve its core questions so we are able to observe long-term traits.”
Model says the ageing gamer inhabitants will yield its personal challenges that may have to be tracked.
“Australia’s inhabitants is ageing quick. Our information reveals older adults are likely to play alone greater than socially,” he says. “That’s a public coverage alternative. And because the medium itself evolves, we’ll have extra inquiries to ask.”
“That’s the purpose of analysis, in any case.”
The important thing findings from this yr’s Australia Performs research:
- 82% of all Australians play videogames. The typical age of avid gamers in Australia is 35.
- Australia is a console-dominated market, with 74% of Australian households proudly owning not less than one gaming gadget. Consoles are the preferred, adopted by smartphones, then PCs.
- 51% of the gaming inhabitants in Australia establish as girls, 1% establish as non-binary, and 48% establish as males. (Although as Professor Model factors out this result’s inside the margin of error, which sits at 2.7%)
- 89% of oldsters play videogames with their kids as a way of connection. In the meantime, 75% of oldsters have guidelines in place with their kids round gameplay. Although, solely half of the adults surveyed mentioned they had been acquainted with Australia’s videogame classifications.
- 77% of Australians play video games socially with others. The bulk play to have enjoyable (97%), destress and loosen up (95%) and to cross the time (95%).
- The preferred sport style in Australia is motion/journey, adopted by puzzle video games after which shooters and carefully tied with sports activities video games. Training /coaching video games had been the least standard.
What do you concentrate on the findings of this yr’s Australia Performs research? How vital is it to trace the demographics of avid gamers? Let me know within the feedback under.
- Harrison Polites writes the Infinite Lives publication. Observe him here.
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