This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on April 1, 2008.

If you are in the position where you have to convince the budget makers that video games would be a good investment, remember to reference these numbers and statistics:

Everyone Plays Games
According to the Entertainment Software Association (a group comprised of all of the major game publishers)…

— The average age of a video game player is 33 and 24% are over the age of 50
— 38% of players are female
— More women over 18 play games than boys under 17
— 33% of American homes have at least one game console

Gaming Is Growing
According to the NPD Group (a company that charts game sales in America)…

— Video game retail sales reached $18.85 billion in 2007. For comparison, the box office take for films in 2007 was $9.26 billion.

Gaming Is Family Friendly
According to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)…

— Only 6% of the 1,563 games released in 2007 were rated M For Mature.