Australians are spending more time online than ever – and gaming is leading the charge.
New Ipsos iris data reveals that nearly 17 million Australians visited a games website or app in June, up 3.9% year-on-year. That’s 76% of Australians aged 14 and over, with the average user spending 9.8 hours a month – or roughly 20 minutes a day – playing games.
Gaming isn’t just for the young. Australians aged 55 to 64 spent more time gaming online than any other group, averaging 19 hours per month. Men and women were equally engaged in gameplay, though younger men were more likely to consume gaming content and information. Additionally, the Ipsos iris Establishment Survey for the 12 months to March 2025 found 36% of households own a gaming console.
The June Ipsos iris data shows news content continued to dominate, reaching 21.05 million people or 95.1% of the online population. But that figure was down from May’s spike during the federal election, with several high-profile news brands seeing significant audience declines.
ABC News remained Australia’s most-read online news outlet with 12.02 million visitors, but that figure was down 13.7% month-on-month. The Guardian Australia saw the biggest fall of any major masthead, dropping 21.2% to 7.39 million users. The Sydney Morning Herald was also down sharply by 15.9% to 6.52 million.
Other brands to record month-on-month losses include 9News (-5.9%), 7News (-7.0%), and Yahoo News Australia (-11.7%). Overall, Australians spent nearly five hours consuming news content online during June, on par with the same time last year, despite the drops in total reach.
Top news stories included the disappearance of Queensland teenager Phoebe Bishop, the Erin Patterson murder trial and the NRL State of Origin Game 2. Internationally, the Israeli airstrikes on Iran and subsequent retaliation, the Air India plane crash and Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s multi-day wedding also drew strong traffic.
Elsewhere, the categories with the highest month-on-month growth were energy suppliers, sports and games. Automotive, homes and property, games and entertainment recorded the largest annual increases.
In total, 22.127 million Australians accessed the internet in June. Australians aged 14+ spent an average of 4.9 hours online per day – an 8.2% increase year-on-year. The most visited digital categories were search, social networking, technology, retail and entertainment, all drawing over 21.8 million users.
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