Electronic games top tween wish lists
TEEN & TWEEN: Music, movies popular among older boys, girls
By Cindy Spielvogel -- Video Business, 3/2/2009
MARCH 2 | TEEN & TWEEN: Electronic games are the main items that tweens are saving their money for, according to a survey by Weekly Reader, an educational publishing company with a panel of tween online participants called WR Insiders.
A third of the young respondents said they are saving their money to buy electronic games, whether for videogame platforms or the computer. Games ranked highest among each age group, both boys ages 6-9 and 10-12 and girls in the same age groups.
Coming in second for tween savers, at 21%, was music, whether in the form of iPods, CDs, MP3 players or music downloads.
In terms of what they’ve actually spent their money on in the last three months, games fell to second place at 42%, behind food or candy at 51%.
For boys, electronic games remained the most popular item. A total of 51% of boys ages 6-9 and 65% of boys ages 10-12 reported that they spent money on electronic games in the last three months.
For girls ages 6-9, electronic games came in second to food or candy (36% spent their money on games while 45% spent it on food or candy). For girls ages 10-12, games came in third at 29%, after food or candy (59%) and fashion (41%).
Fashion was the third most purchased category overall at 37%, behind food/candy and games, followed by movies (32%, not specified whether in theaters or on DVD) and music (30%).
Movies and music were both more popular among older tweens, with boys and girls ages 10-12 spending money on them in higher percentages than boys and girls ages 6-9.
Weekly Reader conducted the survey in January in online interviews with 1,001 boys and girls, all of whom are members of WR Insiders. The final data was weighted by age and gender to match census parameters.
