Reality Bytes: Brits Crowned Biggest Video Gamers

Brits are the ultimate keyboard warriors, playing video games hours longer than their global rivals, virtual private network provider NordVPN can reveal.

Brits typically spend a colossal 4hrs 36mins a week gaming, playing 98.6% longer than other countries — the equivalent of five extra days of solid playing per year.

They battle it out online nearly twice as long as international opponents, with overseas game players clocking up 2hrs 19mins on average.

NordVPN surveyed more than 15,000 people from 16 of the world’s most advanced digital economies.

While Britain tops the table, it’s the Swedes who spend the least time gaming, dedicating just 30mins to it each week.

The only things Brits spend more time doing online are watching TV/films (7hrs 55mins), using social media (4hrs 57mins) and listening to music (4hrs 42mins). [see full table and top 5 hacked games below]

However, Brits slip to fourth in the table when it comes to the total proportion of their lives spent online.

Despite putting in an eye-watering 58hrs 45mins into their digital lives each week, they are eclipsed by Brazilians who rack up a staggering 91hrs 24mins. That’s equivalent to 218 days a year or 88% of their waking lives.

At the other end of the scale, people in Japan — a country that created some of the world’s best-known video game companies like Sega and Nintendo — spend just 22hrs 38mins online each week, and only 55mins of that gaming.

Previous NordVPN research revealed the five most hacked games, based on the volume of videos featuring in-game hacking uploaded to YouTube². Fortnite came top followed by Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty: Warzone and Destiny 2.

Marijus Briedis, CTO and digital privacy expert at NordVPN, said:

“Brits were big early adopters during the computer game revolution at the end of the last century and they’ve been in love with gaming ever since.

“The UK was an important market for games manufacturers in the 1990s. It was bursting at the seams with young fans with plenty of pocket money to spend and, with a cooler climate keeping Brits indoors for much of the year, it meant a nation of gamers was born.

“This infatuation with an ever-expanding universe of games has become a national pastime and has been passed down from generation to generation.”

How do Brits spend their time online?