A new report by Newzoo examines the French gaming market to find who's playing games, what platforms they use, and what games they play.

With 39 million players and $4.3 billion in revenue in 2022 so far, France is the seventh biggest market in the world in terms of both players and earnings. The study finds that 70 percent of the French online population are so-called game enthusiasts - those that don’t just play games, but actively engage in the industry through other sources such as viewing streams or engaging in social behaviour like engaging in online gaming communities.

Newzoo separates gamers into distinct personas which are grouped together into different categories. The report found that 19 percent of those surveyed were non-gamers, while 13 percent are lapsed gamers, or those that fell out of the hobby. Time fillers, those that play games casually, made up the largest single group of gamers at 25 percent, followed by mainstream gamers who spend a significant amount of time playing or viewing gaming content, at 19 percent.

A hobby for everyone

In terms of demographics, 53 percent of French gamers are male, compared to 47 percent female and less than 1 percent non-binary or other. Those aged 21 to 35 made up the largest percentage of gamers at 31 percent, followed by 36-50 (27 percent), 10-20 (25 percent) and 41-65 (17 percent).

Over the past six months mobile had the largest market share of platforms, at 44 percent, closely followed by consoles at 41 percent and PC at 30 percent. However, players tended to spend more time on consoles over the same period, with an average of four hours and forty minutes a week. This was followed by PC at four hours and 35 minutes and mobile titles at 4 hours and 12 minutes. This suggests that whilst more people play games on their phones, they’re less engaged in them.

It’s worth noting that casual titles are more prevalent on mobile devices, and such games are ideal for playing while on a commute or during a break. Due to this it’s possible that time fillers make up a significant portion of both mobile players and the overall playtime on phones.

Last month, Newzoo examined female gamers, and found that while 72 percent of women worldwide played games within the past six months, they were less likely to refer to themselves as gamers.