According to Gamer Segmentation 2010, the most recent report from leading market research company, The NPD Group, the Extreme Gamers segment, which represents 4 percent of the total U.S. gaming population, spend 48.5 hours a week playing games. Overall, U.S. gamers ages 2 and older spend 13 hours per week playing games, up from 12.3 hours in 2009. 

Really, that’s no surprise as I can sit and play an RTS for several hours at a time. What they don’t mention is that in a 7-day week that’s about 7 hours per day. Who the heck has that much free time?

The study, which provides a detailed look at the behaviors of gamers, including download purchases, micro-transactions, and prices consumers are willing to pay for digital downloads.  Based on these behaviors, gamers are grouped into seven distinct segments: Extreme Gamers, Avid PC Gamers, Heavy Portable Gamers, Console Gamers, Online PC Gamers, Offline PC Gamers, and Secondary Gamers.

According to the report, 17 percent of games were purchased digitally, up slightly from 16 percent last year.  Avid PC Gamers, representing 11 percent of the gaming population, are the most heavily involved in digital purchasing with 30 percent of their past 3 month purchases having been acquired digitally.

That’s no wonder with great download portals like Gamersgate, with over 2000 titles, leading the charge. Nearly everyone seems to be setting up a digital distribution platform including EA, Activision, Ubisoft and Blitz 1Up. Of course there were already others like Direct2Drive and Impulse as well as Valve’s own Steam.

When looking at the number of hours gamers spend per week playing video games, hours spent playing both console and PC games showed a marked increase over last year’s study, with console games increasing 9 percent and PC games increasing 6 percent.  The number of hours gamers spent playing portable games saw a decline of 16 percent.  

The average age of gamers increased slightly over last year from 31 years of age in the 2009 study to 32 years in this year’s study.  Avid PC Gamers and Offline PC Gamers, comprising 11 percent and 8 percent of the gaming population, respectively, are the oldest segments with an average age for both of 42 years.

Now I’m 38 so I drop sort of in the middle. I probably play more console or mobile games than PC games. I guess it depends on what comes in for review so I’m not a normal gamer.

Methodology

In January 2010, The NPD Group fielded an online survey that was completed by18,872 consumer panel members ages 2 and older.  Responses for individuals ages 13 and older were captured directly, and responses for individuals ages 2-12 were captured by “surrogate reporting,” whereby a parent/guardian brings the child to the computer to answer questions, and the child then answers either with or without the guardian’s assistance. Final survey data was weighted and balanced to represent the U.S. population of individuals ages 2 and older.