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Nielsen Media Research reported that of all the TV households in the U.S., 41.1% of them (45.7 million homes) have video game consoles. Nielsen saw an 18.5% increase in console-equipped households from a 35.2% (38.6 million) in 2004. Entitled "The State of the Console," the report details on the progress of console adoption, demographics of users, and levels of console penetration on various demographics.
What's more surprising is that the number of TV households increased by 1.6% only, so the rise in consoles wasn't because more people bagged an HD set. And even though male gamers 18 years old and above have played consoles, those within the teenage bracket of 12 to 17 years old exhibited an extremely high level of console penetration.
Other facts pointed out by the report are:
- The number of Internet-connected console households has grown to more than 4.4 million, even before accounting for the connectivity of the Nintendo Wii and Sony's Playstation 3.
- 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 which stands at 5 hours, 45 minutes) accounted for 74.4% of total console usage.
- In the fourth quarter of 2006, 93.8 million people 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.
Jeff Hermann, VP of Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services said, "The video game console has become a major player in the battle for the living room." According to him, the consoles are competing against each other to draw the most playing time out of households across the country, including movies, multimedia and Internet TV.
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