The rather confusing table.
Nielsen, the company that makes US TV executives quake in their boots with its ratings, is doing the same for video game consoles over the pond.
Its 'State of the Video Gamer' report for 2008 is now out and states that, "Looking at the total usage minutes across all consoles for 2008, PlayStation 2 with the largest installed base still leads all other consoles.
"However both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 usage minutes are both trending down for the year.
"Xbox usage minutes are also trending down for 2008. The Xbox 360, Wii and GameCube usage minutes are trending upward."†
Before the crowing starts from those people who have less than great love for PlayStation, the report also states that, "PlayStation 3 console users clearly use their consoles as a group more than any other console type we track."
That said, there is also a table included in the report that shows some rather confusing data. This refers to "The active user percent tells us how often a person used their console out of the total amount of time the console could have been used during the measurement period."
The table (pictured right) shows that PlayStation 3 owners used their console for 8.1% of the available time. Xbox 360 owners, however, used their consoles for 17.4% of the time. PS3 sessions were on average 64 minutes long for 2.42 sessions per day, while Xbox 360 sessions timed at 78 minutes on average 2.15 times a day.
To show that the results are not your standard 'We've looked at 100 people who play video games and we can conclude that everyone loves our product' slab of nonsense, here's how Nielsen gets its data: "The source for console metered data is Nielsen’s National People Meter (NPM) sample of more than 17,000 US television households.
"When metering sample households, Nielsen monitors not just television activity on all metered televisions but the usage of any device attached to the television including video game consoles – old or new. When a video game console is the detected source, we collect and process usage and demographic data for the console just as we would a television viewing source."
So, of the 17k people, the company also finds that:
- PlayStation 3 users are older than users of any other console tracked.
- The most active (console) gamers tend to be younger males in the 12 to 17 range.
- The PlayStation 2 has the most pronounced downward decline.
- World of Warcraft and Second Life show a decline in unique players during the Summer months, with World of Warcraft regaining its players in the fall and winter.
- Predominant users of the Wii and GameCube are likely to use these consoles at most once a week and for fewer minutes and the fewest number of sessions compared to the other two groups of consoles.
Read the full report here.
†We're also somewhat confused about the GameCube comment in the report. We'd figure that Wii owners playing GameCube titles are classed as GameCube users.
Its 'State of the Video Gamer' report for 2008 is now out and states that, "Looking at the total usage minutes across all consoles for 2008, PlayStation 2 with the largest installed base still leads all other consoles.
"However both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 usage minutes are both trending down for the year.
"Xbox usage minutes are also trending down for 2008. The Xbox 360, Wii and GameCube usage minutes are trending upward."†
Before the crowing starts from those people who have less than great love for PlayStation, the report also states that, "PlayStation 3 console users clearly use their consoles as a group more than any other console type we track."
That said, there is also a table included in the report that shows some rather confusing data. This refers to "The active user percent tells us how often a person used their console out of the total amount of time the console could have been used during the measurement period."
The table (pictured right) shows that PlayStation 3 owners used their console for 8.1% of the available time. Xbox 360 owners, however, used their consoles for 17.4% of the time. PS3 sessions were on average 64 minutes long for 2.42 sessions per day, while Xbox 360 sessions timed at 78 minutes on average 2.15 times a day.
To show that the results are not your standard 'We've looked at 100 people who play video games and we can conclude that everyone loves our product' slab of nonsense, here's how Nielsen gets its data: "The source for console metered data is Nielsen’s National People Meter (NPM) sample of more than 17,000 US television households.
"When metering sample households, Nielsen monitors not just television activity on all metered televisions but the usage of any device attached to the television including video game consoles – old or new. When a video game console is the detected source, we collect and process usage and demographic data for the console just as we would a television viewing source."
So, of the 17k people, the company also finds that:
- PlayStation 3 users are older than users of any other console tracked.
- The most active (console) gamers tend to be younger males in the 12 to 17 range.
- The PlayStation 2 has the most pronounced downward decline.
- World of Warcraft and Second Life show a decline in unique players during the Summer months, with World of Warcraft regaining its players in the fall and winter.
- Predominant users of the Wii and GameCube are likely to use these consoles at most once a week and for fewer minutes and the fewest number of sessions compared to the other two groups of consoles.
Read the full report here.
†We're also somewhat confused about the GameCube comment in the report. We'd figure that Wii owners playing GameCube titles are classed as GameCube users.
Read More Like This
Comments
Wolfthing 9 Apr 2009 13:18
1/4
Clearly this is a US based report, are there similar statistics for the UK and other regions of the world?
Futurologists are predicting the continual breakdown of geographic barriers and borders, and a growing "cyber" community, so any sort of statistics that concentrate on one region or another become less and less important.
Who were these players playing against? Other players in the US? Or people in Japan and Europe?
I've noticed a sharp increase in Russian and Eastern European players online - where are these stats?
Futurologists are predicting the continual breakdown of geographic barriers and borders, and a growing "cyber" community, so any sort of statistics that concentrate on one region or another become less and less important.
Who were these players playing against? Other players in the US? Or people in Japan and Europe?
I've noticed a sharp increase in Russian and Eastern European players online - where are these stats?
Was p 9 Apr 2009 20:14
2/4
Wolfthing wrote:
I've noticed a sharp increase in Russian and Eastern European players online ...
There was a story a few months back, about how 200 PS3s could be used to crack security codes. This can't have gone unnoticed in the world of cyber crime. So if there's a sudden spike of Killzone players from the old Eastern Block, maybe that's what hackers do when their not trying to get your bank details when they've got a lot of PS3s to hand.
more comments below our sponsor's message
L 9 Apr 2009 23:49
3/4
I've played Killzone 2 online alone 60+ hours so far. Granted it may not sound like much but I've played my PS3 for at least 2-3 hours almost every day and that is a lot considering I'm 21 year old full-time student and part-time employed. I think PS3 owners being more mature is obviously a factor why they might supposedly be able to use their PS3s less as we have other things to do with our lives. I don't think lack of games is an issue anymore as PS3 has a fantastic library of games and its lineup looks better than any platform for 2009 and beyond. However, I like the fact PS3 owners are appearantly more mature because except for the rare 1 or 2 occassions to date I have not heard a single profanity while playing Killzone 2 online and there are a lot of people with headsets playing that game. Whereas my only friend with a 360 says he's sick of the constant outburst of profanity and racist language on games like Halo 3 and GeoW2 online.
Was p 10 Apr 2009 19:29
4/4
L wrote:
However, I like the fact PS3 owners are appearantly more mature because except for the rare 1 or 2 occassions to date I have not heard a single profanity while playing Killzone 2 online and there are a lot of people with headsets playing that game. Whereas my only friend with a 360 says he's sick of the constant outburst of profanity and racist language on games like Halo 3 and GeoW2 online.
Have you tried the US server? It's not short of profanity and racist language. I've played KZ for a similar number of hours to you but chose the US server for the mainly English speaking players but found it little different to XBL on the moron quota, though there are less kids, the whistling to start the whole com. system feeding back is almost physically painful and not something I've found on XBL. It seems a shame if US players need to be barred to make on-line a nicer place, especially as it's usually one or two players out of 32, that act the arse.
Perhaps I should give the Euro server an other go.