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Nielsen: Video games winning against primetime TV

Nielsen releases its latest report on the state of video game usage. The data shows that games are more prime-time than we thought.

Dave Rosenberg Co-founder, MuleSource
Dave Rosenberg has more than 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to startup IPOs to open-source and cloud software companies. He is CEO and founder of Nodeable, co-founder of MuleSoft, and managing director for Hardy Way. He is an adviser to DataStax, IT Database, and Puppet Labs.
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Dave Rosenberg
2 min read

Nielsen is out with its latest State of the Video Gamer report, based on data from the fourth quarter 2008. There's not many surprises, but some of the data is quite interesting, including the fact that "heavy" gamers tend to play video games during primetime TV hours and use time-shifting technologies, such as Tivo DVRs to catch up on shows later in the night.

This certainly makes me wonder why in-game advertising hasn't become more prevalent if Tv is competing against games for eyeballs.

Key takeaways from the report:

  • More sophisticated consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 attract the more engaged console users, who are less likely to be watching television in Prime Time than users of other consoles.

  • The PlayStation 2, while still leading all other consoles in total minutes of usage, continues to have the highest downward trending rate of usage. Trending data suggests by the end of 2009, the PlayStation 2 will no longer be the most used console in the United States.

  • Females 25 years of age and older make up the largest block of PC game players accounting for 46.2 percent of all players and 54.6 percent of all game play minutes in December 2008.

  • The most played games on the PC are card games from Microsoft, with the most played game being Solitaire with more than 17 million players for the month of December 2008.

  • Females 55+ over index in terms of their PC game play versus all other demographic groups.

    • You can download the full State of the Video Gamer report here (PDF).

    Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom

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