The NPD Group today released data from its new Gamer Segmentation 2010 report. The so-called "Extreme Gamers" segment, which NPD says represents 4 percent of the total U.S. gaming population, now spends 48.5 hours a week playing games. On average, U.S. gamers ages 2 and older spend 13 hours per week playing games, which is up from 12.3 hours in 2009.
NPD's methodology breaks down the gaming population into seven distinct segments: Extreme Gamers, Avid PC Gamers, Heavy Portable Gamers, Console Gamers, Online PC Gamers, Offline PC Gamers, and Secondary Gamers. Overall, NPD noted that hours spent playing both console and PC games "showed a marked increase" year-over-year, with console games increasing 9 percent and PC games increasing 6 percent. Interestingly, the number of hours gamers spent playing portable games saw a decline of 16 percent.
Other noteworthy findings from NPD:
- The average age of gamers increased slightly over last year from 31 years of age in the 2009 study to 32 years in this year’s study. Avid PC Gamers and Offline PC Gamers, comprising 11 percent and 8 percent of the gaming population, respectively, are the oldest segments with an average age for both of 42 years.
- For games that were either purchased or received by gamers in the past three months, both console and portable games experienced increases over last year's study, by 16% and 10%, respectively.
- According to the report, 17 percent of games were purchased digitally, up slightly from 16 percent last year. Avid PC Gamers, representing 11 percent of the gaming population, are the most heavily involved in digital purchasing with 30 percent of their past 3 month purchases having been acquired digitally.
"With these kinds of shifts in the composition of the gaming consumer and changes in gaming behavior, it’s clear that the need to understand gamers and their purchase patterns remains critical information to those that develop, market and sell games," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group.
