An analysis of the habits of gamers that do play online shows that they prefer PCs and that mobile devices are gaining ground.
Report from The NPD Group Addresses Attitudes and Behaviors of Online Gamers
PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 2004--
Study Shows Large Percentage of Online Gamers Choose Their PC/Mac for Online Play, While 10 Percent Are Strictly Mobile-Based Gamers
The overwhelming majority of today's 13-to-44-year-old gamers have the ability to play games online and a good portion are taking advantage of it, but it's dominated by one platform - the PC, according to The NPD Group's recently released report, "Online Gaming: The Consumer Perspective for PC and Video Games."
According to the report, nearly 90 percent of respondents who play games via a PC/Mac or video game console use one of the three online-capable systems (PC/Mac, PlayStation 2 and Xbox). Of these gamers who use an online-capable system, 60 percent are playing online, with a significant percentage of both PlayStation 2 and Xbox owners using their PC/Mac to play games online instead of their respective console systems. In addition, roughly 10 percent of those who said they play online are strictly mobile-based gamers and do not use any of the three online-capable systems.
"The seeds of online gaming were planted when the Internet was made available for commercial use in the early 1990's, so it's not surprising to see that PC games have the home-court advantage when it comes to online gaming," said Richard Ow, senior industry analyst, The NPD Group. "On the other hand, the mobile-based gaming market - a market still very much in its infancy - showing a 10 percent user base (among general gamers who also play online) is what really stands out. And with most mobile platforms being online-ready, they're close to competing with the console systems for the attention of online gamers."
The study goes on to report that close to 60 percent of online gamers' time spent playing games on a PC is for online gaming, while roughly 40 percent is offline gaming. The opposite is true for both PlayStation 2 and Xbox, where approximately 40 percent of time spent playing games are online and 60 percent is offline.
As for who's playing online, today's 13-to-44-year-old online gaming market is skewed slightly more male: 53 percent versus 47 percent female. PC/Mac-based online gamers drive this ratio, while PlayStation 2 and Xbox skew heavily male, with approximately 88 percent being male and 12 percent being female.
Overall, the average amount of time spent playing games online among the three platforms is 6.1 hours per week. Respondents were also asked how many hours per week they spend using the system to play games offline, with the average time spent among any of the three platforms being five hours per week, which is roughly one hour less than the average for online gaming.
Methodology
A survey invitation was e-mailed to a representative sample of 15,700 males and females ages 18 to 44, with an over-sampling of males ages 18 to 30 given their high propensity to play video games. An additional 3,300 teens (ages 13 to 17), with an over-sampling of males, were also e-mailed the survey invitation. The survey was fielded on Thursday, June 3, 2004 and closed on Monday, June 21, 2004 with a total of 7,430 responses, yielding a 39% response rate. The survey data is weighted to represent the population of individuals ages 13 to 44 in the US.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
Since 1967 The NPD Group has provided reliable and comprehensive sales and marketing information for a wide range of industries such as apparel, appliances, automotive, beauty, consumer electronics, food and beverage, foodservice, footwear, home improvement, housewares, information technology, music, toys and video games. NPD provides critical knowledge on what is selling, where, to whom and why to help clients make more successful, fact-based business decisions. For more information visit www.npd.com.
