We all know teen girls run the commercial world, and now they’ve all but taken over online gaming.  Newzoo, the international full service market research and consulting firm completely focused on the games industry, provided new statistics showing the importance of the gaming market for teen and the rapid development of gaming worldwide.

In the study Newzoo looks at tween girls across the US, UK and France, and a sample of online gaming provider Spil Games’ 9.3 million monthly US visitors on its girls platform GirlsgoGames, Newzoo found that teenagers put the game as their third favorite pastime activity, behind the Internet and watching television. Adolescents in these countries spend about a quarter of their free time playing online.

The growth of communities of teenage players of Spil Games is exponential, both in the number of individual visits and time spent on the GirlsGoGames platform.

The total number of French teenagers playing each month rose 67 percent, from 1.2 million to 2 million monthly active users.  The average time per user on a site has increased by 63 percent from 30 to 49 minutes per month.

Tween girls in the US prefer playing online games over talking on the phone and 84 percent of girls aged 10 to 15 who use a tablet say they play games on it. The total number of US tween girls jumped 22 percent since April 2012, from 7.6 million to 9.3 million.

In the UK, the total number of teenage girls playing each month increased 56 percent, from 1.6 million to 2.5 million monthly active users. The average time per user on a site has increased from 35 to 46 minutes per month, a 31 percent increase over previous year.

“The global tween gaming market has been underestimated for a long time. Despite this, gaming has become a favorite form of entertainment for these girls, and they’re responding strongly to gaming content that reflects their interests,” said Peter Warman, CEO of Newzoo.

Tween girls are more interested in quizzes and tests, cooking games, makeover and fashion games, with highest influx is seen at Saturday at 5 p.m.

Gaming penetration reaches new high

The global market for video games is expected to increase from $67 billion in 2012 to $82 billion in 2017, according to a series of new reports from DFC Intelligence.

The $67 billion industry is penetrating gaming lovers across cultural, legal, and political fronts, according to another annual report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

The ESA report said that the US households games penetration has now reached 72 percent, a greater percentage than ever. Of these, 42 percent are women games and 82 percent are adult gamers. Games for mobile and smartphones are driving much of this growth.