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Nielsen's First PlayMetrics Results Announced

Posted by Zonk on from the how-we-play dept.

June was the first month that Nielsen's new approach to tracking game play was fully implemented, and the statistics from last month are now out. Some sample numbers: "The company determined that 68.1 million individuals used a videogame console in June, playing an average of 7.5 days during the month. The PlayStation 2 was the most-played console, accounting for 42 per cent of the total console usage ... The Xbox 360 accounted for eight per cent of console playing time. Its users logged in an average of 2.2 sessions per day, with an average session length of 61 minutes. The PS3 accounted for 1.5 per cent of console usage. Its users logged in an average of 1.9 sessions per day with an average session length of 83 minutes-the longest playing session of all consoles studied. The Wii, by comparison, accounted for four per cent of overall console playing time. Its users logged in an average of 1.78 sessions per day with an average session length of 57 minutes." GameDaily has further demographics from the results.

13 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. What about.... by svendsen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    the DS and PSP? While they aren't consoles, they are still part of the video game market. And considering hwo the DS has creamed a lot of the consoles you would think they would want that info.

    1. Re:What about.... by JonathanBoyd · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, they've sold about 18 million in Japan, which has a population of 127 million, so that's 'only' a seventh of the population. Very impressive, but quite far off the 65 million required for half the population.

  2. Where is this data coming from? by razorh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's all great fun to see numbers, but how are they coming up with them? Is there some box that people have in their living room that somehow records what system they are playing on and do these people own all systems being monitored? all games? Is this internet based traffic from machines connected to the internet? how many machines out there aren't actually online? Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not seeing any info on how the data was collected in the article.

    1. Re:Where is this data coming from? by razorh · · Score: 5, Informative

      ok.. dug this up:

      Nielsen GamePlay Metrics uses console data collected from the Nielsen's
      People Meter TV sample combined with Nielsen GamePlay Metrics' proprietary
      audio signature library that matches the unique audio signature of every
      game tracked on the six most widely available video game consoles,
      including PlayStation 2, PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii and GameCube.
      The GamePlay
              Metrics user sample includes more than 12,000 households with
      approximately 33,000 individuals.
              Nielsen GamePlay Metrics uses PC data collected from the Nielsen's
      Video Game Tracking Survey. Video Game Tracking is a weekly online survey
      of 1200 gamers 7 - 54 years of age. Qualifications include ownership of a
      console or PC, play video games at least 1 hour per week and have purchased
      at least one or more video games in the last 6 months. The Video Game
      Tracking online survey has been in the field for more than two years (104+
      weeks).
              Additional data, including rankings of console video game titles and
      the electronic metering of PC game titles are in testing and will be
      available to select Nielsen GamePlay Metrics clients in the near future. On
      July 5, 2007 Nielsen announced a collaborative agreement with Sony Computer
      Entertainment America to develop a measurement system for computer game
      advertising that includes the sharing of video game console data. The
      Nielsen-Sony data will also be provided within GamePlay Metrics service in
      the near future.

      from here:
      http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT= 104&STORY=/www/story/07-26-2007/0004632940&EDATE=

  3. PS3's High Session Times by BrokenSegue · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Could the PS3's higher session lengths compared to the other two "next-gen" consoles be explained by a higher proportion of people watching movies on the console (instead of playing actual games)? That would make sense since I know several people who bought the PS3 just to use it as Blu-ray player.

    --
    Rankmaniac 2010
    1. Re:PS3's High Session Times by twistedsymphony · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually I was thinking more that that 360 had a low session time due to the high session count. Caused by the fact that games get frequent updates and whenever you update a game you have to log-off while the update takes place. It only takes a few seconds but the stats would show a regular 1 session lasting about 1 minute followed by another session lasting 2 hours... If I pop in a game that I haven't played in a month or two there is almost guaranteed to be another game update that needs to occur, and if you pop in a game for the first time, it almost always has an update available. It's sad but when I bought the darkness last week I was almost shocked that it didn't have to update but instead just played straight away.

      Obviously that would give you an average session of about an hour but it's not a very accurate statistic because despite the fact that the system logs it as two separate sessions it really is just one. There is no description about accounting for this and it sounds like they're using the built in profile system which would lead me to believe that they're not.

      --
      Collector's Edition
    2. Re:PS3's High Session Times by iainl · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Alternatively, they may be just counting it as multiple sessions when I play Geometry Wars for 10 minutes before loading Forza 2, or when I stop playing for a couple of minutes to chat with one of my friends who has popped online before going back to the game. There are all sorts of things that 360 owners regularly do that could be breaking one "session" of sitting down to use it into little bits.

      --
      "I Know You Are But What Am I?"
  4. Wow by cromar · · Score: 2, Informative

    I didn't realize PS2 was quite THAT popular.

  5. So what you're saying is... by feepness · · Score: 5, Funny

    The PS3 accounted for 1.5 per cent of console usage. Its users logged in an average of 1.9 sessions per day with an average session length of 83 minutes-the longest playing session of all consoles studied. They didn't account for load times, did they?
  6. Halo 2 (PC) outranks Counter Strike?! by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 3, Informative

    And 1.852% played the original Warcraft (giving it the same rank as Counter Strike; rank 8)?

    http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT= 104&STORY=/www/story/07-26-2007/0004632940&EDATE=

    Doesn't sound right if you ask me.

  7. Priorities by Interl0per · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Might the fact that the less costly console appears in more affluent homes tell us something about the target market and priorities of those who purchase these machines? Also, why no numbers for PC, only rankings?

  8. ok, so what did i miss?? by hurfy · · Score: 2, Funny

    It says they track on 6 consoles. From the second link adding up the percents comes to less than 79%.

    Are 21% of them playing on the Phantom or something?

    Was interesting that the last gen console beat out its new counterpart in each case tho.

  9. Re:I call Shenanigans by geekoid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I know 3 different people who have been Nielsen.
    You, or I, alone means exactly shit.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect