A new report released by Nielsen titled “The State of the Console” reaffirms that gaming consoles are continuing to get a firm grip on American households. This is hardly surprising given the recent buzz surrounding new consoles released by Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.
According to the report, about 41.1% of all American households own a gaming console. This translates into 45.7 million U.S. homes. This figure is higher than the 38.6 million homes that owned gaming consoles in 2004, which was then about 35% of all U.S. homes.
For the male demographic aged between 18-34, the report indicates that about two-thirds of these households own a console.
Americans who don’t own consoles are a large target market as well. Between September 18, 2006 and December 31, 2006, 93.8 million Americans played a video game at least once for at least one minute. About 1.6 million Americans are playing a game during any minute of an average day.
This is great news for marketers, who will find better and more accessible opportunities to reach consumers through in-game ads that will be able to take advantage of the dynamics that come with an Internet connection.
With Microsoft already well into the market, and with Google on its heels, reaching the 4.4 million households that own consoles that are connected to the Web will become easier and more rewarding.
Assessing the industry’s growth and strength will also be easier to gauge when Nielsen unveils its GamePlay Metrics sometime this year.
Source:
http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.
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