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Are you an extreme gamer?

Interesting NPD survey of 18,800 US gamers linked here, here and here. It identifies a small group of extreme gamers who meet the following characteristics (my answers included for reference):

Characteristics of Extreme Gamers:
  • Play an average of 48.5 hours per week. Goodness knows I try sometimes but even when i am stuck into a game 30 hours is about my limit.
  •  Is 29 years old. Well...I was 29 once.
  • Is one third female. Ahem ... last time I checked I was all man. 
  •  Plays console more than PC. Consoles? I've heard of them. Must check them out some day. 
  • Purchases 24 titles every 3 months. I am not that extravagant but thanks to Steam and other online give aways I sometimes hit one new game a week.   
I am a bit surprised that mmorpgers don't feature more strongly in the extreme gamer segment. I suspect that 48 hours a week would barely qualify you to get into a top raiding guild.

Interesting also to note that the PC is one again the largest and fastest growing gaming segment. I am sure that casual games have a big impact here but I suspect that digital downloads of more serious games are contributing too. The average age of gamers in general is 31 while the average age of PC gamers is 42 (now there is a significant number). I take these age figures with a pinch of salt though because surely that just depends on the population they choose to survey. The older age of PC gamers is credible enough though  I guess.
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Comments

Cap'n John said…
Extreme Gamers purchase 24 titles every 3 months? That's 100 games per year or 2 games each week! Who buys 2 games every week? Are they seriously trying to tell us that there are people who go to the games store every weekend and buy 2 games every single time? Okay, so they go every other weekend...and buy 4 games??? They go once a month and buy 8 games? Come on! Who does that?

These aren't "extreme" gamers. These are people with a problem.
2:37 pm
mbp said…
It does seem bizarre alright - especially since these are console gamers so we are probably not talking about two budget casual games per week.
3:00 pm
Tesh said…
I'll second the good Cap'n. That's insane.

I certainly don't fit the profile by those numbers... but maybe I should get bonus points for working in the industry and designing games in my spare time?

Still... even if you counted my full time job, my spare time designing games *and* the time I actually play games, I might not even get to that 48.5 weekly hours number.

That's another stat that seems... extreme.
4:29 pm
mbp said…
Tesh seeing as you work in the industry you have an excuse not to play games at home :) That would be like working overtime!

Remember that those numbers only apply to a very small percentage of extreme gamers but one sobering fact that was also noted is that 48 hours a week is only a bit longer than the average amount of time kids spend watching TV!
4:40 pm
DM Osbon said…
mbp do you use something like Raptr or gamerDNA to keep track of your gaming?
10:45 pm
mbp said…
Hi Dm. I used Xfire for about a year but I disabled it last month. The statistics it gives aren't great and I got tired of having the client running in the background all the time. How do you find Raptr DM?
2:04 am
DM Osbon said…
Too early to have a clear picture on Raptr but it has improved greatly since 2008. Am running a poll on my blog to see which of these social utilities is thought of as the best at the present time ;-)
8:09 am
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