Video Game Engagement, Used Sales at All-Time High, says Nielsen

The folks at Nielsen have taken a look at how gamers/consumers (defined as claiming to have purchased a title in the past 6 months and played for at least 1 hour per week on any of the current consoles or the PC) have responded to the economic recession and noted that gamers are playing more than ever and buying many more used games. Ironically, instead of the recession hurting the game industry, Nielsen notes that gamers are playing much more, which has been a boon for the industry. 

“Over the past several months, the number of hours that gamers claim to be playing is at an all time high, part of a rising trend in gameplay that began in 2007. Additionally, gamers have increased their purchase of used games to record-breaking totals since the Video Game Tracking survey began asking about this in 2006. The same is true for subscriptions to video game rental services by mail,” Nielsen said. “Taken together, these trends point to gamers’ continued engagement with the category even as their budgets have come under pressure. Overall, the recession has not abated the trend of increasing gameplay and may have in fact accelerated it as gamers look to get more value out of the games they own.”

Nielsen believes that much of this upward trend is due to an expanded audience playing more casual and evergreen type titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band or Wii games.

“Primarily, we believe mainstream gamers are playing more of the broadly appealing games (i.e. Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Rock Band) pushing their hours of gameplay up,” said Michael Flamberg, director of client consulting, Nielsen Games. “The social aspects of these games have engaged them. We don’t believe hardcore gamers are driving up the usage averages we’ve observed. Second, gamers may be looking to stretch their entertainment dollar further through playing games they own more. The importance of value for them is evident in the findings on used game purchase.”

You can check out Nielsen's full report, “The Value Gamer: Play and Purchase Behavior in a Recession,” by clicking here.