217 million people playing games world-wide... or are there?

comScore, a company earning its way in the world by compiling and analysing consumer data, tells us that there are currently 217 million people in the world playing games online. (Of course, this number only sounds impressive until you realize that there are over 6 billion people living in the world today.) But the numbers themselves seem to leave a lot to be desired -- over at PlayNoEvil they have a detailed analysis of the other things this data seems to have overlooked:

• All of the companies comScore seems to be tracking are US-based. What about the large online gaming market in Asia?

• Smaller game sites aren't considered. (Smaller than Yahoo, MSN, WildTangent, etc.)

• Client-based games like World of Warcraft are excluded.

• People playing in internet cafes (common in Asia) aren't counted.

So, from this data we can definitively determine that there are 217 million people in the world enjoying online gaming -- or maybe more. While it's interesting to see attempts at quantifying the online gaming market, I'd be interested in seeing some more inclusive estimates.

[via The Forge]