A new research study was released by Lazard Capital Markets this week and some intriguing information was contained in it. Core gamers are spending more time playing video games due mostly to the strength of the titles released this year (no surprise) but because of "new business models and a changing product mix," less active players are moving away from console games and heading toward casual gaming (surprise). The Lazard report said, "The bad news for the console market is that the number of casual or infrequent gamers outnumber core gamers, resulting in a slight tilt toward less time spent overall playing console games." While this is so-so news for the console gaming business, it's excellent news for the casual gaming industry.

As defined by the Casual Games Association (CGA), casual games are "video games developed for the mass consumer, even those who would not normally regard themselves as a 'gamer'." Since you're on The Clik reading this piece right now, you know that casual games are just that: they're games that are easy to learn, quick to access, require no special video game skill or knowledge, are typically non-violent and are fun to play. There is no time commitment required - you can pick up a casual game easily and start and stop any time you like without feeling guilty about leaving a protagonist hung out to dry! It is estimated that over 200 million people play casual games online each month and that's just the number of players on casual gaming Internet sites. Casual games are still being bundled onto new personal computers, making them available to just about anyone who owns a computer. Plus, everyone knows that social network gaming has grown exponentially (thanks, Farmville!) and now mobile gaming has taken a great leap forward.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project recently announced that of the 82% of US adults who use cell phones, 43% of them have apps on their smartphones and 10% have downloaded apps to their phones during the last week. Okay, you might be wondering why I mention this. Well, a different study conducted by The Nielsen Company reports that games are the most popular mobile application downloaded to smartphones in America. In fact, games were downloaded by a whopping 65% of "past-30-day smartphone downloaders." The news for casual gaming only gets better: PriceWaterhouseCoopers projects spending on wireless gaming in 2011 to grow - from $499 million in 2006 to $1 billion in 2011. Could this mobile success be due to the fact that consumers look at their phones as casual gaming devices? Yes, says a study entitled "The New Frontier: Portable and Mobile Gaming" by Parks Associates. While game developers have introduced more advanced games to the mobile platform, less than 10% of "on-the-go internet gamers" are interested in these kinds of games, preferring casual games like puzzle and card games, word and arcade games. Yuanzhe Cai, director of Broadband and Gaming for Parks Associates, says, "In the mobile gaming industry, consumer awareness lags behind technological advancements. New 3D and multiplayer mobile games look great in demos, but casual games are where the money is and will be for the next few years."

In the CGA's most recent in-depth study on casual gaming (released in 2007), casual gaming had already surpassed television as the chief "stress reliever" during lunch and after work. But, the study's most eye-opening statistic was the demographic identified for casual gamers - it's 100% of the population! That means casual games are being played by people of all ages, both genders and all nationalities...that's a pretty big demographic! And, whereas young males comprise the chief demographic of console games, casual gamers are mostly middle-aged women who don't mind paying to play and who shun the violence that attracts hardcore gamers to console games. In fact, women are quite content to play a word game for 20 to 60 minutes - to relieve stress, to have fun, to challenge their minds or just simply to ward off boredom. Without the complexity of characters and situations that typically occur with console games, casual gamers can pick up a game and start playing just about any time, anywhere - no fuss, no muss.

Currently, there are about 400 casual games available with thousands of mobile and social networking casual games released every year. However, the top 20 best-selling games generate the bulk of the revenue for the industry. Tetris is the granddaddy of all mobile casual games with over 100 million mobile games sold so far...and counting. (See my piece on the resounding popularity of this game.) A survey of popular and currently played casual games on Character Arcade) shows that casual gamers love Mahjong in any form or variety, including USA Character Mahjong, Ninja Mahjong and Burn Notice Mahjong. Considering the history of the game and the fact that it's more than a century old (see my piece on mahjong ), you'll understand why it's such a stalwart performer in any iteration. (And, to me, it never hurts to see as many pictures as possible of Burn Notice's Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell!)

As Lazard Capital Markets indicates, casual gamers have pretty much "lost interest in Wii and music titles," and, in the future, will be "more inclined to play browser and mobile games." So, readers, get out your laptops, netbooks, iPads and smartphones and start limbering up your fingers because casual games are here to stay.

As for me, a pretty big casual game player, I'm partial to word games, Mahjong and Alchemy. Readers, which casual game is your favorite?