14 DAY TRIAL // The NPD Group says that the results of its annual Core Gaming survey in the United States show that there are 34 million individuals who can be classified under the designation, which means that they are spending an average of 22 hours during the week playing.
The number is down from 37.5 million during the previous year and the company says that those who are part of the group are defined, according to Gamasutra, as those who play non-puzzle titles on PCs and on video game consoles that were not created by Nintendo.
The definition of the NPD Group might be a little too restrictive for some, which might mean that the number of core gamers in the United States is higher than it was in 2013.
The firm states that 26 percent all those surveyed prefer to buy digital copies of titles instead of physical ones, which is an increase over the previously tracked period.
The number of core gamers is seen as an indicator of the health of the industry overall, but there are problems with the methodologies that most companies use when trying to evaluate how many of them exist.
The NPD Group will soon also reveal sales numbers for the month of April in the United States.