The results of the studies were collected in a magazine Google branded, “It’s Lit: A Guide to What Teens Think Is Cool”. The polls focused on dozens of brands, including several video-game related ones. Surprisingly, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo all came out impressively “cool.”

The question of the hour is, of course, “What does it mean to be cool?” Google’s polls ultimately left it up to the teens to decide what cool meant, but here’s an example from one person in the study:

Of course, that’s just one teen. Obviously “cool” means something different to everyone, but considering it’s Google running this poll perhaps it’s best to view “cool” as what brands are marketing positively to teenagers and millennials.

As initially mentioned, teenagers saw the Xbox brand as cooler than PlayStation, with Nintendo falling quite a bit behind the other two. There was very little difference between Xbox and PlayStation, however, and it could be said PlayStation even comes out ahead, as more teens said they were aware of that brand compared to Xbox.

On the other hand, almost the exact opposite is true when polling millennials, who see the PlayStation as cooler than the Xbox. It might all be moot though, because nothing holds a candle to YouTube, Netflix, or Google’s cool rating.

For those that are curious, the gaming brand with the lowest “cool” rating from both teens and millennials is EA Sports.

Here’s where the polling gets a little suspect. Not only did the magazine go on to refer to the Xbox as the X-Box through its entirety, but here’s the list of “Most Popular Games” according to teens:

The Legend of Zelda COD Blacks Ops Grand Theft Auto Pokemon Minecraft CS: GO

Obviously not everything on that list is a game - several are franchises. And one has to wonder whether the polling service really understands the difference between Call of Duty, Black Ops, and COD Black Ops.  Not to mention, why the surge in popularity for Call of Duty: Black Ops in general? Still, if you treat this list as solely as brands it shouldn’t be surprising to too many gamers.

One last gaming-related detail from Google’s polls is the gender difference. Of the 400 teens polled, 14-15% of boys said video games were cool, while 2-3% of girls said video games were cool. That doesn’t necessarily mean that teen girls aren’t playing video games; in fact, there are tons of girl gamers out there.

Officially, Google’s It’s Lit magazine has a date of October 24, 2016 attached to it, but it was recently released digitally. Let’s hope the company releases a similar study every year, though it might be best to reconsider the name.

Source: It’s Lit (PDF)