NPD: Online gaming up 10 percent in US
According to Gamasutra, a recently released report from the NPD Group claims online gaming increased by 10 percent in 2009. Furthermore, the number of games purchased via digital distribution increased by 20 percent in the same period, marking a 19 percent increase over the previous year. Meanwhile, the number of gamers that play online decreased by 2 percent. The overall increase in online gaming was the result of gamers playing online longer -- an average of eight hours per week, up from 7.3 the previous year.
Breaking it down by platform, the PC sees the most use overall with 85 percent of PC owners playing online. Among gaming consoles, the Xbox takes the online cake, with 43 percent playing it online. The PS3 and Wii both tie at 30 percent, though it's worth noting that PS3 online use is up 10 percent over the previous year.
The question has to be asked: What are all those Wii owners playing? There can't be that many copies of Mario Kart Wii out there. Oh, wait ...
