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NPD: Only 3 Percent Of Gamers Are 'Extreme,' Most Are 'Young And Heavy'
by Eric Caoili
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August 12, 2008
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There are 174 million gamers in the U.S. who play games on PCs and video game consoles, says the NPD group in a recent report titled "Games Segmentation 2008."
The report analyzes seven gamer segments, defined by console ownership, usage, and frequency, seeking to help the industry better understand video game sales, ownership, and usage patterns within these segments.
Of the 174 million gamers in the U.S., 3 percent are classified as "Extreme Gamers," 9 percent as "Avid PC Gamers," 17 percent as "Console Gamers," 14 percent as "Online PC Gamers," 15 percent as "Offline PC Gamers," 22 percent as "Young Heavy Gamers," and 20 percent as Secondary Gamers.
With over 38 million gamers in its segment, Young Heavy Gamers makes up the largest gaming group in the U.S. While Extreme Gamers show a preference for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games, Young Heavy Gamers favor portable systems, with six out of every ten Nintendo DS and PSP owners consisting of Young Heavy Gamers. Young Heavy Gamers make up at least one-third of any system's owners.
The study also shows that among next-generation console owners, PlayStation 3 owners are most likely to own other next-generation consoles. Also, only 10% of PlayStation 2 owners also own a PlayStation 3.
Despite being the smallest group, Extreme Gamers lead all segments in purchasing power, buying approximately 24 titles across all their systems in three months (October - December 2007), over seven times more than the second leading purchasing segment, Console Gamers, who on average purchased only 3.2 games during the same period.
According to the report, Extreme Gamers spent an average of 22.3 hours per week playing video games, while Console Gamers, the second highest segment, spent an average 8.2 hours per week.
NPD analyst Anita Frazier cautioned, "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. In order to promote continued growth, we must better understand all of the gaming segments."
The study goes on to note the rising popularity of digital purchases, with digital downloads making up approximately 14% of the games purchased in the surveyed three months. Predictably, Avid PC Gamers had the highest incidence with 27% of their purchases being digital. Over half of Extreme Gamers and over a third of Avid PC Gamers claimed that they would definitely download a feature to enhance a specific game they own.
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Based on that, I don't know what they are trying to prove... aside from the obvious shock value of saying "only 3% of gamers are 'extreme'" which is as subjective as it is irrelevent.
Also, this whole 'young and heavy' distinction doesn't settle with me. Are we then to consider that someone who owns a DS, but no consoles or PCs to be in the same category of 'gamers'? Aside from the obvious fact that handheld systems are much cheaper than consoles, there is not one breed of person called a 'gamer' who one day makes a choice between a handheld or a console. 85% of Americans own cell phones, game developers focus on mobile communication technologies to meet the needs of this demographic? No... because while they use electronics, they are not the same as people who use consoles.
I think the report would be better suited to giving us raw data instead of drawing pre-mature conclusions based on the their biased comparisons. As far as I can see, this information is too corrupt to be of much use in the business sense