Nielsen is New Source for Video Game Statistics

For years, academics seeking to buttress introductions to gaming papers have trotted out facts and figures from the Entertainment Software Association. For instance, their latest document in this series, 2007 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry, offers such factoids as 67% of all heads of household in the US play video games, and the average player’s age is 33 (a number that keeps rising as we get older).

Now, the Nielsen Company that for many years has kept track of television ratings, has started keeping track of video game playtime as well. Nielsen GamePlay Metrics will offer usage stats on both consoles and computer video games. The number one console last month, according to the folks at Nielsen, was Sony’s PlayStation 2, with a 42% share of gamers’ screen time.

The number one computer video game during that time period was World of Warcraft, which outranked its runner-up by 4 times as much game play. Rounding out the top 10 were: Halo: Combat Evolved; titles in The Sims series; Halo 2; RuneScape; Madden NFL 07; Warcraft III; Warcraft; Counter-Strike; and titles in the Grand Theft Auto series.

The company tracked console usage in much the same way they track television watching: through the use of a monitoring device in 12,000 volunteer households. This makes sense since the consoles are hooked up to television sets anyway. The PC games were tracked through surveys, which were administered to 1,200 gamers. As with television watching, survey and monitoring data were extrapolated statistically to come up with the numbers.

Additional data, such as which console titles are seeing popular usage, should be available as the Sony partnership flourishes. One caveat for researchers looking for the latest data: it likely will not be free. Instead, the press release gives the impression that current data will be offered for sale to targeted media interests such as game makers. Hopefully Nielsen will throw researchers a bone and offer older data for free.

I’ve also heard that MarketingCharts.com offers additional useful info, including game rankings.

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