Nielsen report ranks gaming usage for Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 consoles
By Laura June 
posted April 8th 2009 7:26PM
posted April 8th 2009 7:26PM
Nielsen's just released their anxiously awaited "State of the Video Gamer" report, and while it's a real page-turner, there aren't exactly any surprises in store for readers. Conducted in December of 2008, Nielsen investigated use of the three major consoles -- the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360, and the PS3. The study found that of those three, owners of the Xbox 360 got the most use out of their console -- an average of 11.4 percent of the time for the duration of the poll, while the PS3 came in a close second at 10.6 percent. The original Xbox followed directly behind that with 10.2 percent, while Wii owners gamed a sad 6.8 percent of the time... far less than that of even PS2 owners. The Wii also came in last place in terms of total days used during the poll, with an average of 5 days (PS3 and Xbox 360 users averaged 6.8 and 7.1, respectively). Hit the read link for the full, breathtaking study and see how you measure up! [Warning: read link is a PDF]
Update: As tangocat (and maveric101) point out in comments, we misread the chart the first time out, mistaking the Xbox stats for the Xbox 360 numbers. We've cleared that up -- good looking out!
Update: As tangocat (and maveric101) point out in comments, we misread the chart the first time out, mistaking the Xbox stats for the Xbox 360 numbers. We've cleared that up -- good looking out!
[Via Joystiq]
please don't pay attention to the morons. i'm a big 360 fan, but its pretty obvious that the PS3 and 360 share a large portion of their libraries. I love the 360's exclusives though, so that's why i stick with the 360.
i own a 360 and a PS3...
there are not enough *good* games for the PS3 yet, considering it costs so much more.
i own 2 games now for the PS3, LBP and MGS4. i used to own R&C.
for the 360, i own 11 games, soem are multi platform, but the online is also better, so i buy my multiplatform games for that. until the PS3 can match it, i'll continue to get most of my games on the Xbot system. thank you very much.
nintendo did an amazing job selling their console... the problem is that no one is developing anything for it serious gamers want to play. It's too bad really, but look at the Saturn where it was the exact opposite. No one really had one and it and there were plenty of amazing games for it.
Wii's are for parties and family night. PS3 & Xbox360 are for lonely people who imagine they have (online) friends. I say, power to the social console device.
Social console device? well there's one I don't think I've heard before. Yeah I'm not social so, eh no thanks.
Lol why the hell are people still saying the PS3 has no games lol. I have 28 games and they were only purchased because they were good games. I only have 15 for my XB360. There's hundreds of others to choose from on the PS3. When all these kids grow up and get bored with the Wii and XB360 they move onto a proper console.
yeah, im sure you do.
noooooooot.
That avatar is totally doing "dat ass."
omg youre so right! -saved-
I game as much as I watch on my PS3. To me it is the most affordable media center with kick ass gaming abilities.
Where in the study does it say ps3 got more usage than xbox360, if anything the reoccurring theme in the study is that PS2 is still ahead but usage, is slowly dropping and xbox360 is the next in line. They don't seem to show if people are using there PS3 for Games or Blu-ray. Some weeks do go by where my ps3 is on almost every night and I don't touch my 360, but that's because I'm watching blu-rays from net-fliks not because I'm playing games on it. I think (my opinion) people who have both system's in there house and an HDTV primarily use the 360 as their main game machine and ps3 second, and have there Ps3 as there primary Blu-ray/Dvd player...at least that how I use them, and No I do not have a wii, I already have a gamecube. =)
I have both and only use my Xbox for netflix streaming now. Which isn't very often because the movie selection for streaming is small, and the Xbox's fan is incredibly loud. Plus a majority of my friends use PS3. As far as exclusives go I like the PS3 ones better. Halo 3 sucks.
Fair enough, I enjoy the Blu ray player when I do use it. Most games are multi-platform and available for both, can't argue with that. I will argue that despite the arcade games and other things, I don't really feel like paying for the online play so I enjoy the fact that it's free on the PS3. Online is definitely better as Microsoft's made the Xbox Live system better by using the same company that Sony signed a contract with last year to help them improve their online system. I don't recall the name of the company but it was the same company that helped Microsoft make the xbox live system as good as it is today. Sony made a contract deal with them last year to have them consult and bring the playstation network up to speed so based on their previous work I'll expect the network to improve in performance. As far games go, I can't complain that the game I play don't have a great amount of replay value, there might not be as many games as the xbox 360 but then again Microsoft did pay off to get some of the exclusives which is reminiscent of what sony did in the past.
ok...I can understand saving money, and ya Xbox live cost money and all, but shit, talk about being cheap $60/12 = $5 a month...that's pennies a day...Anyone with a job can care less about that issue...hell, I'm actually recently unemployed and I can care less about the "Cost" of xbox live...beside that I buy 90% of my multi-platform games for 360, with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions like burnout, cause 90% the time, 360 is the lead system, there's no point to buy the inferior version of the game. And if that 3rd party game is exactly the same on both consoles, then I'll still buy it for 360 because 1, achievements, and 2 most of my friends all have 360's more so than ps3s...and trophies are cool and all but its to lil' to late...they implemented it to late in the game, and I just don't hold the trophies as the same meaning as MS' achievement system, simply because it was there day 1, and trophies weren't. I think (again my opinion), the only reason why ps3 users who constantly defend it and swear by it and have bought (10+) games for it are either A>people who have never owned or gave an 360 a chance or B>blind sony loyalist aka fanboys
@JOR-EL
You sound like a fanboy. You listed why you prefer the xbox360 so that is fair enough.
But then to say that those who defend the ps3 either havent tried the xbox360 or are blind fanboys is ridiculous. People have their reason to buy the ps3 and the fact that it is:
a) a very good games system
b) free online play
c) best blu-ray player on market
d) full HD media streaming
e) great exclusives
should point out that with these advantages they have a reason to buy a ps3 and defend it regardless of how good the xbox360 is at games.
Some people look beyond just games, The ps3 matches and sometime surpasses the xbox360 in many aspects apart from library size (quality and better than quantity) and maybe online play (could be seen as being a subjective issue).
So gamers spend more time on PS3 than they do the 360, and more on the 360 than the Wii. Is this a direct correlation to game load times? :)
no it's direct coloration to the blu-ray player
actually, Engadget has it wrong, because they just copied Joystiq's article. 360 actually gets more playtime if you actually read the PDF:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/stateofvgamer_040609_fnl1.pdf
and if you multiply average minutes/session and average sessions/day, 360 comes out at 167.7 minutes/day, while PS3 has 154.88 minutes/day.
c'mon Engadget, you guys are pathetic. You didn't even look at the source?
It just happened again -- they credited you when you were quoting me. ^_-
They really aren't looking at sources, not that it matters..
most spend time on the 360, not PS3... so yeah, i guess so.
...and if PS3 didn't have a blu-ray player they would have bombed so ironically the thing that costs them the most to manufacture is the thing that saved them... unfortunately it has nothing to do with making fun lasting games. I need a blu-ray player and GOW3 will be out soon so that is my only motivation for getting one.
I disagree. If Sony would've left out Blu-ray from the PS3 then it would've been priced competitively with the 360. Considering that more than 90% of everyone here bashing the PS3 now used to be Playstation fanboys not so long ago, I’d wager to say that they would still be on top of the console market had they just stuck to the formula. They might’ve lost the Blu-ray/HD-DVD format war had they done that so it’s hard to say which was the better move.
I do have to say that my Xbox 360 is pretty much on all the time...my ps3 gets most of it's use from blu-ray movies since i don't really have a good game for it yet...my wii is just sitting there beside my ps2.
How about little noisy, when you watching your Blue Ray?
I don't see the point of this study.
To set a new stage for the Fanboy Wars.
Is it really a "sad" thing to spend less time playing video games?
Can Nielsen company spend more than 15 seconds on the graphs and format the ugly default MS Excel 2003 outputs, please.
Considering their blatant ignorance of the proper use of the apostrophe, I'm guessing the answer to your question is a big fat "N'o."
I would honestly rather argue about religion. biblehumpers and bibleburners respect each other's opninions more than you do. And they talk as though everything they say is fact less than you do. Thats saying a lot. Hardcore gamers are so butthurt these days...
the reason the wii is so much lower makes perfect sense. The majority of wii owners are casual gamers who wont spend much time playing it compared to what hardcore gamers might play. a 1 hour session from time to time or when company is over is probably all they do. there are definitely wii owners out there that play it a lot, but in a sea of casual gamers, there's little the more established gamers can do to affect the statistics. on top of that, watching movies on your console counts as use as well.
i dunno, nintendo was right. the wii is so different its hard to compare to the other two.
If gamer's opinions can't be swayed, why do we keep on trying?
Just a better build of gears of war and I would be much much happier
i think my xbox rockx
My Wii has been sitting collecting dust for months. Maybe every once in a while I will play Guitar Hero on it.. but that doesn't really count since you can play that on any console, I just happen to have it for the Wii.
WOW. Microsoft did a great job with Solitaire, 17 million players a month lol
why is the girl making a DAT ASS face?
Was it just me, or did anyone else find the "average usage days" figure to be a little weird for the Xbox360? How can that column be higher than 7?
Sure, 360s are played the most out of the aforementioned consoles... But which ones break the most? :P
This chart is totally pointless and mean NOTHING!
If I create a console a call it "AAA" and I play 24hs a day the chat will say that my console is the most used , even if i'm the only one using it.
Wii is the most selled console, and it's used by far a more wider age range than the ps3. People of 40 with a family will not spend so much time in front of the console like a teenager with his ps3. The information of the chat is obvious, pointless and mean nothing of the actual use of the console (because ps3 user can spend more time, but there are more wii out there to compensate the usage time...Example: 1 ps3 for 10 hours, 2 Wii for 5 hours = same time)
i dont know i play call of duty world at war everyday on the wii.....i reallly like the controls especailly on the wii zapper
PEACE!