According to Common Sense Media’s latest youth media habits census, American kids ages eight and under are spending an average of 38 minutes a day playing video games—which is a 65% jump from five years ago.

And this trend holds true across demos. Five- to eight-year-olds have gone from 40 to 64 minutes per day, and two- to four-year-olds from 16 to 21 minutes. Even toddlers under the age of two are gaming more, going from two to three minutes per day. Most of this gaming time (21 of the 38 average daily minutes) is happening on smartphones and tablets, followed by console games (13 minutes) and computer games (four minutes). 

The census also looks at emerging media types. Interestingly, more than a quarter of kids (29%) have already used AI for learning, and one in five parents (20%) report that the tech has been “mostly positive” in helping their children foster creativity. 

More generally, the report says kids spent an average of two hours and 27 minutes on screens per day in 2024, up slightly from two hours and 24 minutes in 2020. Boys logged two hours and 38 daily minutes, and girls put in two hours and seven minutes. 

The Common Sense census is based on an online survey of 1,578 parents of kids up to age eight that was conducted in August 2024. The full report is available here.