Portable Planet

If the positive momentum continues, it will soon be more than half of United States households with televisions that shall also be equipped with at least one video game console.  Time to pick up a Wii, a PS3, or an Xbox 360 before you’re officially deemed uncool.  

The number of video game consoles in U.S. television households has expanded by 18.5% since the fourth quarter of 2004, according to a new report released today by Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services, a service of The Nielsen Company. In the fourth quarter of 2006 there were 45.7 million homes with video game consoles, representing 41.1% of all TV households, compared to 39.1% (43 million) in 2005, and 35.2% (38.6 million) the previous year.

The increase in both the number and the percentage of U.S. TV households with video game consoles is significant given that the number of total television households has risen 1.6% during the same period.

The report, “The State of the Console,” incorporates extensive data on video game console usage from Nielsen’s National People Meter (NPM) sample of television households as well as its quarterly Home Technology Report. It is the first in a series of analytic studies from Nielsen examining trends in the video game industry.

The launch of Nielsen’s GamePlay Metrics later this year will, for the first time, deliver metered video game usage and demographic data by game title, genre and platform. It will provide advertisers, agencies, hardware manufacturers and game developers with independent, high-quality, quantitative information for negotiating the buying and selling of in-game and around-game advertising.

The number of connected console households (those   subscribing to a service that links their consoles to the Internet) has grown   to more than 4.4 million, even before accounting for the connectivity of the   PlayStation 3 and Wii platforms. Two-thirds of all men in television households between ages 18-34 have access to a video game console in their homes.

During the fourth quarter of 2006, gamers in the top   quintile (the top 20% of users based on average use over the quarter)   accounted for 74.4% of total console usage. Between September 18, 2006 and December 31, 2006, 93.8   million persons used a video game console at least once for a minute or   more. Moreover, in any given   minute of the day, about 1.6 million people in the U.S. are using a video game console.
 
“The video game console has become a major player in the battle for the living room,” said Jeff Herrmann, Vice President of Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services. “In households across the country, consoles are successfully competing for consumers’ time and attention; not simply as gaming platforms, but as multimedia hubs that also can deliver high quality digital movies and IPTV.