Nielsen Top 10 Video Game Console Usage List for 2008

There’s an interesting post over on Gamesutra (with thanks to Evil Avatar for highlighting it) which reports some of Neilsen’s findings around video game platform usage last year.

Nielsen’s data, which actually covers the period from January through October, found that PS2 users accounted for 31.7 percent of the total time played from all nationwide gamers. The Xbox 360 was the year’s second-most popular console, with 17.2 percent of the time, followed by Wii at 13.4 percent.

Interestingly, Nielsen says that the first-gen Xbox currently sees more usage than the PlayStation 3, with 9.7 percent versus 7.3 percent, respectively. The GameCube still made the surveyors’ list with 4.6 percent of total time, and an "Other" category accounts for the remaining 16.2 percent.

It’s pretty fascinating to see the long shadow the huge PS2 install base continues to cast. Also interesting is the fact that the Wii is used significantly less often than the Xbox 360, in spite of having a larger install base. That said, what I’d really like to see is a legitimate comparison of time spent online on the different consoles. While the report shows World of Warcraft continuing to dominate the PC online space, it really doesn’t give a sense of activity in the console online space. And as traditional PC stronghold titles continue to shift over to the console (yes, including MMOs), understanding this usage across platforms is going to continue to grow in importance.

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