Report: 87 percent of U.S. gamers play on Facebook, Pogo et al

That's, like, almost all of the American gamers. A report by Amsterdam-based games research firm NewZoo claims that 126 million, or 87 percent of the 145 million U.S. gamers aged 10 to 65 years old, play games on social networks (i.e. Facebook and Google+) or on casual game portals (e.g. Pogo, Miniclip and AddictingGames). And of that 87 percent, Facebook draws in 60 percent of them.

The mega social network also consumed 41 percent of those social casual gamers' time spent playing as well as 38 percent of the cash they dish out for games. (Though, it is possible that this latter number is inflated by the minuscule percentage of social gamers that dish out thousands a year for their games, or whales.) But American gamers spend a lot of dough on these games overall, apparently.

According to the NewZoo report, 22 percent of Americans that play free-to-play casual or social games pay up for in-game goods. But here's an interesting tidbit: A whopping 87 percent of Facebook gamers play on websites like Pogo and AddictingGames, too. That would definitely help explain why some skilled-based games, like Bejeweled or Tetris, are doing well on Facebook.

However, it could also serve well to explain why casino-based games are blowing up on Facebook. Games like slots, namely Slingo, had their own little home on portals like Pogo (and here at Games.com). If that many Facebook gamers really are fans of such games, then perhaps that explains why slots games are biggest trend on Facebook right now.

How many social and casual gamers do you know out of all the gamers you know personally? Is it close to the 87 percent reported by NewZoo? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.