Yeah, Game Guy figured this had to happen. Sales of new games and technology are many times more than they were a couple of years ago, yet just about every pre-teen and teenage boy already has a console or two, or three. What gives with this unrelenting growth?

According to industry researcher IBISWorld, that growth is due to girls — and older folks drawn into the new wave of casual games. The company’s own investigation finds that girl gamers make up 38 percent of the market, up about 5 percent in just a few years due largely to titles such as “Wii Fit,” “Rock Band” and “Nintendogs,” titles which don’t fall into the traditionally popular action genre of games.

What’s more, the average age of a gamer is 35, IBISWorld says, because casual games that can be played any time and at any length now constitute a larger portion of the gaming inventory, and these games are drawing in new older gamers, but also lapsed gamers who gave them up to get a life.

This means that folks who have, you know … reality to deal with and can’t play games all day, are scheduling some time in front of a console — even playing games with their kids.