The study, the first quarter Vide Gamming Industry Benchmark Report, found that for males, spending on games has become the second ranked purchased entertainment media category behind DVDs and in front of CDs, MP3 and music purchases.
Perhaps most importantly, the report finds that use of video games is rapidly expanding beyond its traditional base of 8- to 34-year-old males, becoming an integral part of the home entertainment spectrum in American households.
The study found that nearly 40 percent of U.S. households own at least one PC-based, home console or handheld gaming system, and that 23 percent of gamers own all three types of gaming devices. Among those who own a gaming device, 89 percent own a console, 65 percent own a PC, 36 percent own a handheld.
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Interestingly, the most avid gamers - 8 percent of the population - own all of the three major gaming systems: Playstation 2, Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube.
Sony's PS2 system is by far the most ubiquitous, with 57 percent of gamers owning one, followed by Microsoft's Xbox (39 percent) and GameCube (27 percent).
The report also found that use of video games correlates directly to the overall availability of leisure time. Not surprisingly, younger gamers reporting the most leisure time and are the most likely to play games. The study also found that 39 percent of gamers are female and that nearly 24 percent of all gamers are over the age of 40.
And in a potentially alarming note for other media, especially television, the study finds that video game playtime is beginning to crowd out other media time activities, and is beginning to rival TV among hardcore gamers. Active gamers typically spend approximately 5.2 hours playing by themselves with a large proportion also being spent playing socially - 3.07 hours per week with friends and family or online.