Exposing my socks to the world

Next-Gen is reporting that over a quarter of the people that use the Internet go to an online gaming site now and again.

“With one in four Internet users visiting a gaming site, playing games online is extremely popular. The fact that these websites are pulling in over a quarter of the total worldwide Internet population shows what a global phenomenon gaming has become,” said Bob Ivins, EVP and managing director of comScore.

“The potential of the online gaming arena should be especially appealing for advertisers, as the average online gamer visits a gaming site 9 times a month,” he added.”

To be honest, I would have suspected that number to be far higher. It seems that every person I’ve ever worked with either professionally or in the computer lab was playing some stupid Flash game or other at some point, and especially when a project was due the next day.

Link! (Next-Gen)

In a recent NPD study, the group discovered that those gamers that play the most (40 hours a week or more) are also the ones that tend to buy more games. This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

“[T]he smallest section is the most hardcore of all. Although they make up just 2 percent of the gaming public, “Heavy Gamers” own an average of 2.8 consoles and 1.9 portables. They play a whopping 39.3 hours a week, mainly on the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, and buy a budget-busting average of 13.1 games every quarter–or roughly 4.5 games each month.”

I find it interesting that the article calls 4.5 games a month ‘budget busting’. I’ve easily eclipsed that some months, but my figure would include one current game and several bargain bin games. This study kind of implies that this mythical super-hardcore gamer subset buys 4.5 full-price non-budget titles a month. Kind of makes me think that I’m in my own demographic.

Link! (Gamespot via Kotaku).