41% in USA have a game console

Slashdot It! By the fourth quarter of 2006, 41.1 percent of all TV households -- representing 45.7 million homes -- had video game consoles, according to a new report released Monday by Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services. That represents an increase of more than 18 percent since the end of 2004.

Battle for the Living Room

Nielsen's report incorporates data from the company's National People Meter (NPM) sample of television households as well as its quarterly Home Technology Report. It is the first in a series from Nielsen examining gaming industry trends.

Later this year, Nielsen will launch its GamePlay Metrics service with metered video game usage and demographic data by game title, genre and platform.

Heavy Users

Among the study's other findings were that two-thirds of all men aged 18-34 have access to a video game console in their homes, and that in any given minute of the day, about 1.6 million people in the United States are using a video game console. The top 20 percent of heavy-usage gamers, meanwhile, average a whopping 5 hours and 45 minutes of usage per day, according to the report.

Such nontraditional games have expanded the reach of video games and consoles into new, more diverse markets, Cai added.

'Gaming Families'

A third factor behind the growing gaming trend is the increasing prevalence of games based on licensed intellectual property such as movies or even restaurants including Burger King, Pollak said. As evidenced over the last six to seven years, he noted, "more licensed properties automatically translate into deeper penetration."