The PC Still Dominates Online Gaming, According To New Report

The NPD Group has released details of a new report that studies the attitudes and behaviors of US online gamers. The research shows that although the majority of today’s 13 to 44 year old gamers have the ability to play games online, the market is still dominated by the PC. According to the report, nearly 90 percent of respondents who play games via a PC/Mac or game console use one of the three main online-capable systems (PC/Mac, PlayStation 2 and Xbox). Of these gamers who use an online-capable system, 60 percent play online, with a significant percentage of both PlayStation 2 and Xbox owners using their PC/Mac to play games online instead of their respective console systems. In addition, roughly 10 percent of those who said they play online are strictly mobile-based gamers and do not use any of the three online-capable home systems. The study goes on to report that close to 60 percent of online gamers' time spent playing games on a PC is for online gaming, while roughly 40 percent is offline gaming. These percentages are reversed for both PlayStation 2 and Xbox players. Among players 13 to 44 years old who play games online, the market is split almost equally between the genders: 53 percent are male and 47 percent are female. PC/Mac-based online gamers drive this ratio, while PlayStation 2 and Xbox skew heavily male, with approximately 88 percent male and 12 percent female. Source: The NPD Group