College students are heavy gamers, according to Anderson Analytics latest survey of 1,000 college students across the US. About two thirds of the college students play games, 82% of male students and 59% of female students.

Casual gaming has become an immense area of interest for the gaming industry recently. "This growing trend is due in no small part to the success of Nintendo Wii. Games that can attract the participation of both males and females are part of the casual gaming landscape," said Jesse Chen, lead consultant for Anderson’s GenX2Z youth-research group.

In the Anderson Analytics’ GenX2Z College study, only about one quarter of gamers said they play games often with someone of the opposite sex. However, the majority of the gamers expressed a desire to see games that are specifically designed to encourage co-ed game play, particularly offline. Tom H. C. Anderson, managing partner of Anderson Analytics feels, "this may be both a promising opportunity as well as quite a challenge for game makers since male and female gamers tend to be drawn to different genres."

For those who want to surprise their favorite college student with a great gift this holiday season, any of the three next-gen gaming consoles (PS3, Wii, or Xbox360) is a good choice, assuming they don’t already own one. Among college women, Nintendo Wii seems to be especially popular.

As for game selection, action/adventure games (70%), shooters (52%), sports games (48%) and strategy games (47%) are the top game categories among guys. As for the ladies, shooter and sports games are not their favorites, however, some of them do pick up action/adventure games (49%) and strategy games (40%). Compared to the guys, they have a more diverse list of favorites, including puzzle (55%), party/family fun (46%) and rhythm (33%) games.

On average, today’s college student spends 6 hours a week playing video games during the school year. However, 6% of students spend more than 15 hours a week gaming during the school year. Parents of these college students may want to reconsider giving games as holiday gifts. Instead they may want to consider items that can encourage activities students secretly desire, such as playing sports or a musical instrument. Of course, it seems as though game makers have already figured this out and therefore one of hottest games this season is Activisions’ Guitar Hero!

Despite of the growing gaming trend among college students, particularly among college women, gaming has not yet overtaken the old tube. On average, students spend 9 hours a week watching TV. Gamers admit if they weren’t playing games, then they’d most likely be watching TV.