Mixed charts — Players of electronic games in South Korea, 2003

The pie chart shows how players of electronic games in South Korea in 2003 were distributed across four age groups, while the bar chart gives the average weekly playing time of male and female players in each group.

Overall, gaming was concentrated among the young, with under-25s making up the bulk of all players. However, the group that spent longest playing was not the largest group, and men played considerably more than women at every age.

Players under 18 made up the largest share of the gaming population, at 38%, with 18 to 25-year-olds accounting for a further 29%; together these two groups represented roughly two thirds of all players. Participation then fell away with age, to 21% among those aged 26 to 40 and just 12% among the over-40s.

The bar chart reveals a discrepancy between numbers and intensity. Male players aged 18 to 25 clocked up 18.6 hours a week, the highest figure anywhere in the data, even though their age group ranked only second in size. Teenage boys came next at 14.2 hours, while the busiest female group, teenagers, averaged 8.5 hours — well under half the male peak. Playing time fell away sharply after 40, to 4.1 hours for men and 2.6 for women.