Average person consumes 34GB of data daily

High-end PC gaming accounts for 38 per cent of the total data intake

The average person is exposed to 34GB of electronic data every day, according to a recent study by researchers at the University of California San Diego.

The How Much Information? report (PDF) into US data consumption showed that the average consumer looks at 3.4 zettabytes (3,400 trillion gigabytes) of digital information each year.

The study looked at digital information consumed through television, computer, radio and recorded audio, but the intake may not be as evenly spread out as the 34GB per person figure would suggest.

Consumers are clearly spending more time absorbing electronic information, but much of the huge data load is attributed to richer, more dense digital data sources.

The overwhelming majority of the data load came from computer games, films and television. Gaming accounted for 54 per cent of all data intake, and high-end PC gaming alone accounted for 38.56 per cent of the total.

"This large role of high-end computer gaming is particularly surprising, because it accounts for less than two per cent of the hours Americans spend consuming information," wrote the researchers.

"The quality of visual effects on high-end machines, and the rapidity with which the player is confronted with changing scenes on the screen, are why these devices and games represent such a huge portion of total information to US households, as well as why the games are so immersive to play."

Researchers suggested that the recent leaps in graphics and processing power in high-performance gaming is causing a smaller percentage of the population to consume a large amount of digital information in the form of richer, more detailed 3D imagery.