According to a new Nielsen study only 93.8 million out of the 148.4 million Americans with access to a console in their home actually use it. This might sound strange, but it simply means that some members of a household don’t play their son’s/brother’s/friend’s console. 

Could this be an opportunity for game makers to reach a hidden market of possible game players who already have access to a console, but just aren’t taking advantage of it?

The study, detailed in a report called “The State of the Console,” was conducted from the fourth quarter of 2004 through the fourth quarter of 2006 by the Nielsen’s Wireless and Interactive Services division.

The study showed that the number of US households supplementing their televisions with video game consoles has risen more than 18.5 percent. 

Nielsen also found that the number of US households with televisions that also have video game consoles has risen from 38.6 million to 45.7 million homes over those two years. Nielsen highlighted the fact that the total number of U.S. households with televisions has risen only 1.6 percent over the same span of time. Among the more interesting findings:

1. 45.7 million US households have at least one game system, out of 111.4 million that have TVs (41.1%). This number has risen from 38.6 million (35.2%) in late 2004.
2. 148.4 million Americans have access to a console in their home, out of 283.5 million that have access to TVs (52.4%). Of those, 93.8 million Americans (33.3% of the TV population) actually used a console in the 4th quarter of 2006.
3. The top 20% of gamers are responsible for 75% of the console time, averaging 5 hours and 45 minutes of use per day.  

These figures confirm that only a small number of console owners are responsible for most of the time spent playing games.

If only game makers could somehow make their games more attractive to non-game-playing members of console-owning households, they could tap into a whole new market.

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Entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 11:48 pm under Technology.

Read more entries by Ruben Francia.
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