Nielsen 2008 report: PS2 still king of consoles, WoW still wowing gamers

Posted Jan 3, 2009 at 10:24AM by QJ Staff Listed in: MMORPG, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 Tags: GameCube, Nielsen Media Research, PS2
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The Nielsen Company has published their annual report of consumer activity for 2008. You can see the entire report through the source link below - there's lots of Top 10 lists there, ranging from most watched shows to most downloaded songs. But what's relevant to us, of course, are the video game lists!

Still retaining their kingly titles from last year, both World of Warcraft and the PS2 reign supreme once more in their respective lists for 2008. It's a shame they don't keep track of console game usage - that way we could have seen which console games of 2008 was played the most. But as for PC games, here's the list:

Nielsen 2008 report - Image 1


Meanwhile, the console usage breakdown is as follows:

Nielsen 2008 report - Image 1


The Xbox... more used than the PS3... Who'd have thought? And seeing GameCube useage not lagging far behind the PS3's is sort of shocking too. I wonder if "others" include handleds though.



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Comments [refresh]

by flammingcowz - 2009-01-03 06:02
» switched?

maybe playstation 2 and 3 places are mixed up?

by bradman4 - 2009-01-03 06:17
» yea

how are they supposed to knoiw how much theses systems are used do they just go look in every house for a certain amout of time and see how kong they use it for this is dumb

by rollypoly - 2009-01-03 06:48
» i'd have thought!

combine high price and lack of killer apps, and it's no surprise the ps3 is near the bottom.



the xbox was an awesome system, i still use mine :)



if m$ would of continued to produce the xbox, i'm fairly confident it would of ranked higher than the wii... maybe even the 360.



the budget market should not be marginalized, it's the biggest one.

by BIH - 2009-01-03 06:56
» What a load of BS

Looks like someone made some mistakes with that.

by blkthunda - 2009-01-03 07:06
» wow

I though the lack of games was over with. What makes you think that the PS3 doesn't have any killer apps?

by Justingraziano - 2009-01-03 07:35
» ...

That piece of ***** WoW doesnt wow anyone. *****ing homophobic bastard company doesnt let you have gay marriages in WoW. *****ing World Of Whorecraft. That's more like it. I *****ing burn that *****.

by anhero - 2009-01-03 07:52
» This charts are pretty reasonable

I mean, its no wonder people prefer playing the ps2 over any other consoles when there's over 20 amazing game titles to play, compared to the less than 5 from the ps3, 360, and wii... As a matter of fact I own a ps3 and ps2 and I can say I play my ps2 around 5 times as much, (I play my ps3 probably 1 hour a week, and yes I have mgs4, cod4, fallout 3, gta4, and they lose the replay value fast). I mean lets be honest, has there ever been any game consoles that has had so many great games as the ps2? maybe the best were of the n64 era but its still obvious the ps2 has the biggest amount of A+ titles and titles that actually envelop you in them for you to play for some hours.



In my opinion both chart seems pretty reasonable, though I'm a bit dubious of Counter Strike Source ranking below the first, team fortress, and runescape in the percent of gamers playing it average per minute.

by Justingraziano - 2009-01-03 08:06
» ya

it sucks

by logicbomb.de - 2009-01-03 08:59
» PS2 rocks

My wife wanted a new PSTwo for Christmas to replace the fatty that died a few months ago, so that's what she got.



Swap Magic FTW!!!!

by Uplink - 2009-01-03 09:23
» Ignorance

its annoying people like you live

by flammingcowz - 2009-01-03 10:58
» swap magic?

use your swap magic to install freemcboot, much better, and esr to go with it so you can boot burned games without swapping discs!

by logicbomb.de - 2009-01-03 13:29
» @flammingcowz

Thanks!



I'll give it a try!

by rollypoly - 2009-01-03 15:05
» i didn't say that...

just because there is a lack doesn't mean none exist...



the ones that do exist are too narrow in scope, MGS4... great game, but the appeal isn't there to the majority of non-gamers.



LBP is a great step in the right direction, however i still don't feel it justifies $400 for the system to play it on... and obviously alot of people agree.



the ps3 is no longer the cheapest blu-ray player either...

by DeduxiBiss - 2009-01-03 17:05
» PS2 expected...

The PS2 is practically as revolutionary to the gaming industry as was the first atari system. I don't see why Sony released a PS3 to begin with, an amp'd PS2 would have been better and cheaper.

by senjutsu - 2009-01-03 19:01
» LOL, so false

It's not facts but supposition. I mean, if they asked people on a website for this info for exemple, only those could answer, and only those who answered were conted, not those who didn't, etc. It's not a way to know those things. The ONLY option I know is simply to check the sales of games. The system the sells more is the one that is the most used by most people, dah. Even if some always play the same game again and again, we only need a general idea anyway, not a perfect number. And I'd say the PS2 is more used too, lol, but for different reasons.



1st: They sold like 150-200 000 000 copies, so A LOT of people have that console.



2nd: They are still selling PS2 titles so a lot of people are still not on the current gen systems.



Finally, we CANNOT say that people use more their PS2 than their PS3/X360 since we don't know if they have al 3 consoles... We can only say, with those fake numbers, that the ps2 sold more... lol. I mean, if 200M ps2 were sold, and only 40M ps3/x360 sold total, then 160M people only have a ps2 (excluding to simplicity the other consoles like the wii, GC, portable consoles, etc) and than can only play that, so DAH the ps2 is played more, but this means nothing!!!!! Stupid Qj



For WoW, I can't say what people like in the game. I tryed for a month, loved at 1st, then saw how repetitive this game is, and stopped playing loosing my time.

by sesa - 2009-01-03 19:08
» Don't put the blame on QJ

Put the blame on Nielsen

by 93pauott - 2009-01-03 21:24
» .

if i want to play PS2 games, i'll just put them in my PS3 and play them.

by 93pauott - 2009-01-03 21:26
» yea

WoW is destroying alot of people nowadays.

by 93pauott - 2009-01-03 21:29
» .

what does the x360 have that the PS3 doesnt? dont come up with anything stupid like xbl, cuz we got psn.

by PS34ME - 2009-01-04 00:46
» to be fair on 360

"what does the x360 have that the PS3 doesnt?"



similar power for half the cost and easier to make games. and please dont mention potential or untapped power, cause 99% of gamers dont care about future potential, they care about whats available now.



dont get me wrong, i love my ps3, but its not twice as powerful as 360 like sony said at the beginning of this gen. fortunately i didnt buy into that hype but i wanted a ps3 because of the exclusive games from some of the industry's best devs, like konami and naughty dog. i just wish more of the cost went into making the ps3 a bit more powerful thats all, especially the gpu, then there would have been no contest from the 360.



ps3 would have been killing the 360 in sales today if kutaragi didnt make it so expensive to begin with by including the ps2 processors and extras. the cheaper ps3 designs we have today should have been the launch machines. yeah it would still be expensive, but it could have been at least $100 cheaper at launch ($399 + $499, instead of $499 + $599), and at that price, would have been flying off the shelves compared to 360.



still, i guess its easy with hindsight.

by Silver-Tiger - 2009-01-04 03:25
» ...

The whole thing is bull*****. More gamers play Halo ONE than Counter-Strike? hello? Same with Runescape, a game 've never heard from. Netx time at least try a bit to sound logic....

by rollypoly - 2009-01-04 03:38
» @93

the same things the ps2 had that the xbox didn't...



a larger market, a lower price point, and a bigger library of games.



since you mentioned it, i do have to take issue with PSN... it just doesn't compare to XBL really... it's another example of "you get what you pay for".

by Hekynn - 2009-01-04 04:17
» Nice

Very nice but ya Sony needs to drop the PS3's price way freaking down their not doing too good in sales during these times of Crisis.

by jacobian91 - 2009-01-04 05:27
» yeah

I agree with you completely. The PS2 was just amazing, and as soon as I get mine fixed (fan died after 5 years of solid use) I'll be playing it a lot just as before. I got all of the last gen consoles, and I have to say the PS2 was defenitely the best.

by ConXept - 2009-01-04 18:58
» silver, do a little research..

Runescape is one of the most popular online rpgs on the face of this earth. Why? because its free!!



And if you notice, its halo 1 for the PC not xbox. Halo for pc has a huge modding and online community backing it up, yes bigger now than counter-strike, especially since counter-strike gameplay has now been replaced with cod4 and is considered old news. Plus you forget all the fanboys behind halo.

by mr.x256 - 2009-01-04 20:40
» Agreed

Best console ever. The first gaming console pleasing to look at.

by mr.x256 - 2009-01-04 20:42
» -

Put the blame on maine.

by HDRasta - 2009-01-05 02:32
» WoW

in regards to 93pauott I have heard that people spend days nonstop for a game thats not as cracked up to be like on the radio someone called in saying that he spent 4 days straight playing WoW, skipping work to play, even saying no to his girlfriend asking him for sex! is that guy an Idiot!!!! the surprise to me that he has a girlfriend in the first place...personally WoW is very overrated

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