6 Million New Gamers in One Year

Talking at the 2009 DICE Summit NPD Group, analyst Anita Frazier announced that at least 6 million people had taken up gaming in the last year, if the data collected by the company she represents are correct. Even if there are significant problems with the industry as a whole, mainly because of the impact of the worldwide economic crisis, the future looks pretty rosy, as more and more people turn to videogames are their preferred entertainment form.

Anita Frazier says that the NPD has data showing that “amongst every dollar spent on entertainment, video games have the most share.” This basically means that videogames are beginning to dominate the spare time of most people tracked by the firm. 58% of the population of the United States aged over 13 is actively playing games and they are spending more and more on game-related hardware and, of course, the latest titles, from GTA IV to Dawn of War II.

The biggest increase seen in the gaming industry is that of online gaming. Less and less people are interested in single player experiences and more and more interested in gaming with another human being over the net. Frazier says that “Online gaming has increased two percentage points from last year,” adding that when it comes to the “top three systems used for online play, it’s the Xbox 360, followed by the Wii, followed by the PS3. Last year, the PS2 was in the second spot.”

It also seems that even if 72% of the audience for videogames is made up of males, half of the money used to purchase game copies is handled by women. It appears that about “half of unit sales” are generated by kids under 17 years old but the percentage of mature games is ever increasing.