"Extreme Gamers" Game More Than They Work?
Full time employment in the US commonly computes between 32 and 40 hours a week, but a new study from NPD claims "extreme gamers" are spending an average of 45 hours a week plonked in front of glowing screens. That's a whole-lotta-gaming. "Extreme gamers' reportedly constitute 3 percent of the 174 million gamer who play games on a PC, Mac, or console, i.e. 5.2 million, greater than the individual populations of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, or the populations of Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, and San Diego combined.
Of the rest, 9 percent are "avid PC gamers," 17 percent are "console gamers," 14 percent are "online PC gamers," 15 percent are "offline PC gamers," 22 percent are "young heavy gamers," and 20 percent are "secondary gamers."
"Young heavy gamers" -- unintentionally ironic given that 32 percent of American schoolchildren are overweight -- number 38 million strong, the largest gaming group in the U.S. "Extreme gamers" prefer the PS3 and 360, while "young heavy" strongly prefer portables.
After portables (say thank you, Nintendo DS) consoles have the second largest ownership segment of any system.
Significantly: While the PC is used more than any single console for gaming, "console gamers," "young heavy gamers," and "extreme gamers" are more likely to use consoles than a PC to play video games.
"Although Extreme Gamers are heavily involved with the industry, they represent a small portion of the potential market for any new game that comes to market," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst for The NPD Group. "In order to promote continued growth, we must better understand all of the gaming segments."
Other bits:
- PS3 owners are more likely to own other next-gen cosoles than Wii and 360 owners.
- 45% of PSP owners also own a Nintendo DS, while only 21% of DS owners own a PSP.
- Only 10% of PS2 owners own a PS3.
- "Extreme gamers" bought nearly 24 games over the past three months, while the next leading purchasing segment, "console gamers," only bought 3.2 games during the same period.
- 14% of all games purchased in the past three months were digital downloads, while PC gamers reported the highest incidence, with 27% of their purchases occurring digitally.
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okay?? 1) those stats are oxymorons, 45% of psp owners own a DS but only 21% of DS owners own a PSP??? more like they need to factor in all the PSP owners of DS's and DS owners of PSPs as one group not two separate groups. i mean really if you own a PSP or a DS that makes you an owner of that system. you cant say that if there are 45% of a group that owns something from another group there isnt 45% of the other group owning the first group.
Actually, those stats may make sense when you observe the fact that there are far more ds owners than there are psp owners.
It would have been better (== more useful to the average reader) to present a single group of "portable owners", with divisions for "PSP only", "PSP and DS" and "DS only".
i caved into the ds crowd and got one this week. now i own a ds and psp... =/
the arguement is perfectly valid to me... especially with penn919's justification
btw where was 2)?
i find it hard to believe those "extreme gamers" can play 45hrs/week btwn 24 games over 3 months.... that's about 8 games a month of 2 games a week! i'm sry but spending 45hrs/week won't let u get through an whole game... unless if they actually dun play/finish most of those games