Research firm Nielsen has released a number of graphs and statistics detailing how much game time is spent on various different gaming consoles.
The release does not include PC gaming, and focuses on home console gaming platforms; PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube.
The results are taken from audiences in the USA and it should be noted that although the results are indicative of general trends, they cannot be called entirely accurate as they do not take into account the world’s, or even the country’s entire game playing population. The results are based on the first half of 2009, between January and June.
This first graph is a basic representation of how many minutes were spent playing different consoles. Unsurprisingly the Xbox 360 and PS2 top the list thanks to their high install base which consists largely of core gamers. Despite the Wii’s massive install base of over 50million units, more collective time was spent on the Xbox 360.
The PS3 came in surprisingly low only securing around 10 percent of gaming minutes played. In total, gamers spent around double the amount of time on Microsoft’s console than on Sony’s.
This graph details the time spent on each platform by different genders. Perhaps surprisingly, males and females spent similar amounts of time on most platforms. The Xbox 360 however enjoys a significantly stronger male following and females spend far more time on the Wii than males.
This chart gives us an idea of which age groups are the most active gamers. The lion’s share of the split is fairly evenly distributed between gamers aged 12-34, with a slight lead going to gamers aged 12-17. The 6-11 bracket is also strong, and it seems that beyond the age of 34 there are significantly fewer gamers, possibly reflecting a generation that missed the birth of the industry which began taking off properly in the early-mid nineties.
The report also included two interesting points. Firstly, according to the study, console usage minutes went up 21% during this period compared to the same period last year. Secondly, the average console gamer spent almost 13 hours playing games in the final month of the study.
View the entire report at Nielsen
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