Nielsen: Women Dominate PC Gaming, Wii Sees Least User Activity

The largest demographic in the PC gaming audience is females age 25 and older, finds a new report from media analysis group Nielsen. And Microsoft's PC Solitaire is still the most-played game on the platform, with over 17 million players in December 2008. The firm's comprehensive "State of the Video Gamer" report touted continued and broadening demographics for the industry, and found increasing penetration of new platforms like mobile phones. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the report found that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are the platforms of choice for "hardcore" gamers. But Nielsen also found that users of those platforms actually watch television less, classified as "medium" to "light" watchers as opposed to PS2 and original Xbox users who are "heavy." The PS3 has the oldest average userbase (specifically, those that use the PS3 primarily). But the PS3 is seeing the same downward trend in actual usage as its last-gen predecessor, the PS2. Interestingly, Nielsen's report found that user behavior on the Wii is very similar to user behavior on the last-gen GameCube: Owners of both those platforms use them the least, with the fewest average daily play sessions and the lowest percentage of active users. And according to Nielsen, it's 12-17 year old males in households earning $75,000 or more that are the "most active" gamers. The full report, which comments that "while the weak economy has had an effect on many forms of entertainment, video games have shown an amazing resilience, with sales of both gaming consoles and games continuing to show healthy growth", is available via a Nielsen weblog post. UPDATE: Since this report, Nielsen has issued a correction that shows that the Wii is not, in fact, the least-used console and keeps pace with the next-gen consoles.]