Average Social Gamer: 43-Year-Old Woman

Next time someone complains about how much time kids these days waste playing online games, bust out the results of this study: the average player is a 43-year-old woman. And they play a lot. The exploding popularity on Facebook and other sites of titles such as Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Happy Aquarium has redefined the genre of so-called social games.

GigaOm rounds up some other findings of the study by game-maker PopCap, which covered both the US and the UK:

• 38% of female social gamers play several times a day, vs. 29% of men.
• Two-thirds play every day, nearly all play multiple times a week, and more than 60% say their sessions last more than half an hour.
• Only 6% are age 21 or younger.

(More social networking stories.)