Which City in New York Was Just Named Nation’s Best City for Gamers?
The United States is home to an estimated 212 million gamers and one city in New York was named the best place for these thrillseekers to live.
A recent survey from Internet watchdog PrivacyJournal.net deduced the top gaming city in the nation.
They did that by poring through data regarding internet infrastructure, gaming stores per capita, number of gaming conventions, variety of meeting spaces, and more.
In the end, New York was the state that came in first place with this major city crowned a cut above the rest.
NY Is for Gamers
PrivacyJournal.net was inspired to look into such data because of the growing number of students wanting to pursue careers in game development.
Before you knock this particular profession, just know Glassdoor estimates the average salary of a game designer is between $73,000 to $120,000 a year. Meanwhile, Salary.com says an entry level game developer earns between $52,000 to $68,000.
And who wouldn't want to live in an area that embraces their profession?
That is why New York City was rated the #1 Best Gaming City in America.
Takeaways
Said PrivacyJournal.net:
New York City is the top city for gamers in the U.S., offering a thriving gaming community with a wide choice of conventions and meetups, and plenty of job opportunities.
While the Big Apple does have a high cost of living, gamers living in the area benefit from the "solid internet infrastructure and excellent gaming community."
Read More: Central NY Has Some of the Most Sleep-Deprived Gamers in Country
It also secured its place as the top destination for gamers due to its top notch gaming environment, which includes number of video game stores that sell games and gaming hardware.
The city is also home to "hundreds of game development studios." Among them are powerhouses WB Games and Avalanche Studios, as well as Take-Two Interactive. That also makes it a top city for pursuing a career in that particular field.
That said, it's no wonder this area also had a strong showing in cities with the best gaming meetups. That finding is boosted by the city's high population of young individuals between the ages of 15 and 44, which amounts to 3.5 million individuals.
Plus, another nearby city also made this prestigious list, with Jersey City coming in 15th place of this new roundup. The survey also declared it had the fifth best internet quality and infrastructure in the entire United States.
These cities made up the top three;
1. New York City
2. Raleigh, North Carolina
3. Plano, Texas
Some Words to Gaming Hopefuls
PrivacyJournal.net ended their study with a message from Drew Davidson, a distinguished professor at the Entertainment Technology Centre at Carnegie Mellon University:
Do more than just play games; it’s what you do outside of games that you can then bring into the games, enabling you to create fresh and distinctive gaming experiences.
As for how PrivacyJournal.net curated their recent findings, they compared the 100 most populated cities in the continental United States across 17 metrics.
Data was pulled from sources like the U.S. Census, ZipRecruiter, Indeed, as well as gaming sources like Best Buy and Gamestop.
Cities were compared across their scores in livability, internet infrastructure, gaming community and access, as well as gaming career and education opportunities.
Our research revealed some interesting things. For example, gamers care about multiple things when choosing a city to live in — having a good internet infrastructure, but also meetups and conventions where they can share their passion for playing video games. It’s also important that the city has job openings, university programs and even scholarship opportunities in the industry.
Check out the image below to find the top 20 cities for gamers:
If you're a gamer, do you agree with these findings?
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