While computer and video games have become increasingly popular in recent decades, the poll found that playing make-believe is still children's favourite pastime.
But other classic childhood games such as hopscotch and hide-and-seek have been overtaken by screen-based entertainment, with playing on the computer now the second most popular pursuit.
The survey also found that children today spend less time playing than their parents ââ¬â according to the memories of adults, who remember doing so for at least 20 hours a week during their childhood.
Researchers from YouGov questioned 1,500 children aged five to 11 about how they spend their play time and asked 2,000 adults about their pastimes at the same age.
From the fifties through to the noughties, make believe ranked as the top activity. Some 22 per cent of children identified it as their favourite form of play, with computer games in second place on 15 per cent.
Bike riding, the second most popular from the 1960s to the 1990s, is now in third place while more traditional activities including skipping, building dens and hide-and-seek have dropped further down the list.
The lure of television and computer screens does not appear to have dampened children's enthusiasm for the outdoors, with two thirds saying they enjoy playing outside, even in the rain.
A spokesman for Sainsbury's, which commissioned the survey, said: Itââ¬â¢s the simple childhood activities than span the generations and old favourites are as popular as ever.
Regardless of what children are playing, the most important thing is that theyââ¬â¢re spending time getting active.
