Over 6.2 million Belgians played at least one video game in the last six months of 2024 – an increase of 200,000 people compared to the previous year, according to a survey published by the Video Games Federation Belgium (VGFB) on Tuesday.
These figures come from a new survey conducted by the video game specialist firm Newzoo among 73,000 people across 36 countries, including Belgium.
The number of Belgian gamers increased from 5.5 million in 2021 to 6.2 million last year. They are most often console gamers (4.2 million), while mobile gaming (2.8 million) remains popular, ahead of computer video games (2.4 million).
The proportion of female gamers has decreased slightly – by one percentage point – compared to last year, to 46%.
However, there has been no change in the average age of gamers, which remains at 31.2 years. More than a third of Belgians aged 36 and over have still played a video game in the last six months.
However, the survey also reveals that younger children are less often in front of their screens: among children aged 4 to 17, less than half (45%) played less than seven hours per week in 2023. This rate rose to 61% a year later.
This is because parents are more likely to set a limit on the number of hours of gaming per week: three-quarters of them set such a maximum in 2023, compared to four out of five parents last year.
