• by Josh Lovison , June 6, 2008

According to a Nielsen study (via IGN), people across all age ranges are playing a lot of Xbox360.   The Xbox360 accounted for over 50% of console use across the study, the Wii accounted for between about 25-30%, and the PS3 accounted for only about 12-20%.

This puts a bit of a damper on the recently announced Sony and IGA Worldwide in-game advertising deal.  The PS3 was only able to claim about 12% of the 10-26 demographics' time.

Though I do wonder about the sample selection and some of the measurement behind the numbers, my biggest question is this: What percentage of time was single-player gameplay, and what percent was multiplayer?  My gut feeling is that the Wii's distant second place is largely due to the lack of compelling multiplayer.  Even for a large single player game, it's rare to spend more than 50 hours on a title.  However, multiplayer can account for a potentially infinite amount of time.  My guess is this is the main reason the Wii users were clocked in at almost half the time using the console per month -- it's more an issue of a lack of supply than a lack of demand.

I also found it very interesting that the average number of sessions per day was about two across the board.  What were the times for these?  Was the initial play session after getting home from school or work, and was the second after dinner?  Or are people playing in the morning as a wake-up gig?

I'd be interested to hear from readers: How close or far do these numbers represent your gaming usage?  When and what do you play?