In its yearly online study of gaming habits for consumer panel members age two and older, the NPD says that this year shows a nine percent increase in console gaming over last year, whereas PC gaming saw an increase of six percent from those polled. Portable gaming didn't fare as well, seeing a sharp decline: 16 percent, despite previous evidence of portable gaming becoming increasingly popular among younger gamers.

The study also offers some insight into the gamers themselves. This year, the average age of a gamer was 32 compared to last year's age of 31. PC gamers are the oldest, with an average age of 42 -- PC gamers who engaged in online and offline play comprised 11 and eight percent of the gaming population polled, respectively.

Now you may be wondering exactly how the NPD parsed this data. 18,872 individuals were part of the study, where gamers aged 13 and older had their responses pulled directly. For those younger than 13 years, the NPD employed "surrogate reporting," where a parent or guardian accompanied the subject to the terminal and either inputted the answers for them or simply supervised their session. The final data was then "weighted and balanced to represent the U.S. population of individuals ages 2 and older."

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/28/npd-console-and-pc-gaming-on-the-rise-portable-gaming-down/

Posted: May 29, 2010 12:34 am