Despite recent trends leading many to believe that PC gaming is in a state of decline, American research firm NPD has revealed that the “PC is still the most-used system for online gaming, with 85% of online gamers reporting using a PC for online gaming activities.”<\/p>\n
The firm provided more insight into the current online game landscape:<\/p>\n
“Among non-PC systems, the Xbox 360 maintains its leadership for the third year in a row as the top video game system used for online gaming at 48%. In contrast to 2009, when Wii was leading over PS3 by 8 percentage points, PS3 and Wii are now neck and neck, with about 30 percent of online gamers reporting that they use each system for online gaming. This is due to an increase in use for online gaming on the part of the PS3, which increased 10 percentage points since last year.”<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly the Xbox 360 is the most played console online, but it does seem odd that the PS3 and Wii are “neck and neck”. Bear in mind however that this report was conducted in the USA, which is still a relatively weak region for Sony.<\/p>\n
One of the obvious reasons for the reported strength of the PC in online gaming is the massive success enjoyed by World of Warcraft, which accounts for around 11 million monthly subscribers.<\/p>\n
It is also unclear whether the survey includes flash and casual internet games such as Farmville which has become increasingly pervasive on Facebook; the world’s largest online social network.<\/p>\n
The findings, which took into account the gaming habits of around 19,000 gamers (still a relatively small sample group) found a very slight dip in online gaming activity, from 56% of gamers playing online in 2008 to 54% in 2009, although, considering the sample group, it seems a bit silly to make any sweeping statements based on this 2% decrease.<\/p>\n
The survey found that although the majority of online games use the PC, the average Xbox 360 online gamer spends the most time per week playing online, with 7.3 hours per week. The average online PC gamer spends 6.6 hours per week, and the average online PS3 gamer spends 5.8 hours per week.<\/p>\n
Although retail sales for PC games seem to be declining, the report found that around 20% of PC gamers use digital distribution platforms to buy their games. These sales are not included in PC sales data, so although PC game retail sales are declining at retail, a significant portion of those sales seem to be being replaced by online sales.<\/p>\n
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