72% Of U.S. Plays Video Games

The NPD Group (those same people who bring us all the neat sales numbers) just published their annual results charting how much of the US actually plays video games. And yeah, we already gave away the punchline in the headline.

72% of Americans play some sort of video games (that's up from 64% last year). Of that 72%, only 42% play games online (that's up from 40% last year). And of that 42% of online players, 90% play online with their PC. Also of note, 50% of online console gaming was on the Xbox 360. And only 2-3% of NPD's respondents reported owning more than one console. How's that for some late afternoon watercooler fodder?

NPD: 72% Of U.S. Plays Games, Only 2-3% Own Multiple Consoles [Gamasutra][image]

For as violent a reputation as has been bestowed upon the video game industry, 'M' rated games only make a small percentage of their total numbers and, according to the ESRB, this small percentage is actually down 50% since 2005. Back then, 12% of titles were rated M. And in 2006, that figure was already down to 8%. In 2007, a year in which the ESRB rated 1,563 games, 'M' rated games only accounted for 6% of the titles.

More neat stats from the ESRB in 2007:

The PS3 Dominates HD Usage, Gamers Love Home Theaters

According to the latest Nielson statistics, the PS3 is the king of HD. Why? Statistics show that 71% of PlayStation 3 owners hook their systems to an HDTV (also interesting, 54% of PS3 owners use surround sound). So what's this mean? Clearly all consoles other than the PS3 suck and are entirely worthless in every way.

But the Wii and Xbox 360 aren't far behind with 65% and 66% HD penetration, respectively. Component cables are the most popular option (which isn't all that surprising since the Wii doesn't offer an HDMI option and the Xbox 360 only jumped on that bandwagon late). Yeah, I'm thinking more and more that my theory that consoles sell HDTVs wasn't so crazy after all.

Gamers Ripe for High-End A/V Systems, Research Shows [via maxconsole]

While I was busy this past Friday getting my weekend on, the folks at Bungie rolled out the statistics on Halo 3 during their weekly update post. According to their data, 43.28% of people connected have completed the campaign on Normal difficulty, while only 15.14% have finished the game on Legendary. Where do I fall in there? THIS ISN'T ABOUT ME (completed game on Easy). Damn parentheses! I'm trying! I'm just busy! Ahem. Anyway, other notable stats included the most difficult achievement, which seems to be Steppin' Razor (Score a Triple Kill with the sword in a ranked free for all playlist) with only 6.21% of players snagging it, and the fact that only 2.07% of online players have gotten a perfect 1000/1000 points from the title. You are of course not reading this, because you're all too busy laughing at my Easy Mode victory. Bastards. Go look at more numbers.

Bungie's Weekly Update [Bungie.net via Eurogamer]

Women Can't Get Enough Wii, Men Prefer PS3

According to a round of national research by Solutions Research Group, the Wii is a woman's eighth most wanted "digital lifestyle product," (with 9% of participants wanting one). Men, on the other hand, preferred the PS3 as their top console (which came in sixth on their list after 10% of respondents wanted one). The 360 and Wii came in ninth and tenth place on man lists.

We'll ignore the fact that decent sales of Wiis and 360s mean more people own them and thereby mean less people want them, and instead stoke the fires on the console fanboy wars.

Women Prefer Wii, Men Prefer PlayStation 3 [via wiiwii]

Activision is launching a new community site for Guitar Hero that will let you earn groupies, find friends and enter tournaments.

After the game launches on Oct. 28, player will be able to create or join a group on the site to compare scores along with tracking and finding friends. The press release isn't exactly crystal clear, but it sounds like the site might be a bit like Bungie's Halo 3 site, meaning that it could track scores, which is a fantastic idea for Guitar Hero 3.

Feature: The Year of the PSP

Marketing to Gamers Harder than Marketing to Old People

Massive Rise in Online Holiday Game Spending

Blizzard Launches World of Warcraft Stats

Gamers are Getting Older