Nearly 170 million Americans play videogames, according to a recent survey conducted by a market research firm.
The information comes from the NPD Group's 2009 Gamer Segmentation Report, an in-depth look at the U.S. gaming population conducted in January that surveyed 21,000 respondents. From the sampling, NPD estimates that the number of U.S. gamers increased to 169.9 million in 2008, up from 165.5 million a year earlier.
According to GameSpot, which purchased the NPD report and compared the numbers to the most recent U.S. Census, that means more than half of Americans are gamers. But that largely depends on the NPD's definition of "gamer."
The NPD report divided the U.S. gaming population into seven groups and found that the largest segment is "secondary gamers," a group of 33.6 million made up of mostly females who game less than four hours a week and don't play on consoles. The second biggest group is "console gamers," a 32.9 million-strong segment made up of mostly males who play 12 hours a week and own at least one gaming platform.
Whether they play a few minutes of Solitaire on their PC or a few hours of *Call of Duty *on their Xbox 360 each week, both groups are considered gamers for the purposes of the report.
Many have argued that casual gamers aren't really gamers and that casual gamers wouldn't even identify themselves as fans of videogames. But it would serve the gaming industry well to have a more inclusive definition.
U.S. gamer population: 170 million — NPD [GameSpot]
Image courtesy Ubisoft
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