Media research group Nielsen recently issued its latest "State of the Video Gamer" report, which discloses several interesting statistics related to the gaming industry.
“Gaming, once the domain of kids and a small group of core fans, is now more mainstream than ever. As the number of platforms continues to expand, we would expect that more people will be drawn to the entertainment video games can offer," Nielsen Games Marketing Manager Bradley Rackza said in a statement. Along with this, the evolution of gaming consoles into multimedia devices has changed consumption habits of traditional media such as TV, movie and Internet content."
Mobile phones have helped expand the video game industry's reach, and looks to continue to explode in 2009 and 2010.
According to Nielsen, the largest PC gaming audience -- despite what many people believe -- is females age 25 and older. Surprisingly, Microsoft Solitaire is the most played game on PCs, with more than 17 million total players since last December.
Both the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles are for the "hardcore" avid gamers, and are both played more than the Nintendo Wii. Furthermore, the PS3 has the older average gamer when compared to the other two current generation consoles.
Specifically, the Wii has the shortest average playtime and very low average number of days used per month -- despite the console's increased interactivity serving as one of its strong points.
The aging PlayStation 2 game console is still the most played game console, though that figure is finally dwindling.
Research indicates 12-17 year old males living in households with $75,000 or more earned income are the most active gamers among all other demographics.
