Are you a "Heavy" gamer???

[Anthony1]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6173525.html


This just in: hardcore gamers are hardcore spenders. That's the main takeaway from "Gamer Segmentation II," the latest report from the NPD Group. Earlier this year, the industry-research firm interviewed 11,638 gamers aged 6 to 44 and sifted through their responses. The result? A detailed demographic breakdown of how the estimated 191 million gamers in the US buy and play their games.

In the report, NPD divided gamers into six different segments. Some 33 percent of US gamers are "Avid PC Gamers" who play an average 13.6 hours per week primarily on a PC or Macintosh. NPD found that members of the group were relatively thrifty, buying an average of 1.4 titles per quarter.

The next-largest group is "Secondary Gamers" with 22 percent of the US gaming population. They play just 6.5 hours a week mainly on a PC or Mac, with only a third owning the nation's most popular console, the PlayStation 2. Secondary Gamers only buy an average of 0.8 games each quarter, the smallest number of any group.

The biggest group of non-PC gamers is "Avid Console Gamers," who make up 20 percent of the US gaming population. They play around 10.7 hours per week on at least one console, owning an average of 1.6 consoles and 0.8 portables.

Avid Console Gamers buy an average of 1.9 games per quarter, just below the two games bought each quarter by the next-largest group, "Mass Market Gamers." Mass Market Gamers comprise just 15 percent of the US gaming public, and play an average of 8.9 hours each week, mainly on the PS2 and PC. Oddly, the section boasts a higher average console ownership of 1.8 consoles than Avid Console Gamers.

The next-largest group is "Causal Kid Gamers." As the name implies, this is the youngest group, comprised almost entirely of children 6-12. They own an average of one console and 0.5 portables, primarily the PS2 and Game Boy Advance. Likely due to parental oversight, this group games the least--just 3.6 hours per week--and ties Secondary Gamers' average of 0.8 game purchases per quarter.

Last but not least, the 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.

Though small--numbering around 3.8 million--this last group's spending habits make it coveted by publishers and console-makers alike. "Heavy gamers have always been a focal segment for the games industry because they're so deeply invested in gaming," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "The potential for industry growth lies with the other, larger groups, and getting them increasingly involved in gaming over time."

Besides buying in bulk, Heavy Gamers are also the most likely to buy games via digital download. However, they are trumped by Avid PC Gamers, who have the highest number of individuals who have purchased over half their games via online delivery. Three of every five Heavy Gamers buy game content via microtransactions like those on the PlayStation Store, Wii Virtual Console, or Xbox Live Marketplace.

Heavy Gamers are also the most likely to play games online, with 83 percent of the group taking on opponents over the Internet. No doubt boosted by the popularity of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, 74 percent of Avid PC Gamers play over the Web.

[roushimsx]

Christ, i wish i could dump 40 hours a week into gaming still. That was one really nice plus to being single. That and having cocoa puffs for dinner.

edit - VVVV you and me both, man.

[carlcarlson]

yeah I don't remember when I was able to play that much in one week. I definitely have the spending beat, but I probably play less than 10 hours a week. and I never play online either... I guess I'm my own category.

[Anthony1]

40 hours per week just sounds insane to me, but there must be people out there doing that. How the hell they do that, I have no idea. I do know of people who buy 4 or 5 games per month, and those people amaze me as well. I don't know where the heck they get the money to be able to buy that many games, that often. Especially now that we are in the world of $59.99 games. The weird thing about it, is that the people that I know that buy 4 or 5 games per month, aren't rich. They are just regular normal people, but for whatever reason, they funnel a very large proportion of their available funds into video games. They own every system, and nearly every portable, and they are constantly buying games. I can definitely believe that, but the 40 per week thing, just seems strange to me. The people that are doing that definitely aren't working 40 hours per week and getting 8 hours sleep, that's for damn sure.

[Push Upstairs]

I am not a heavy gamer, I do all I can to keep my slim, girlish figure. ;)

WHAT?


Seriously...I think I spend more time talking about games and misc. stuff than actually playing them.

[Aussie2B]

Who the hell can play 40 hours a week? I bet some of that is exaggeration by the gamers who want to sound so "hardcore". They feel like they're playing games all the time, so they randomly pick some large number. I mean, for goodness sakes, that's as much time as a full-time job. I think even when I was in junior high and high school when I'd play after school everyday and almost all weekend I still didn't rack up THAT many hours. I remember when the US version of Chrono Cross came out I wanted to be one of the first people to beat it, and I'm sure I played at least 40 hours that week. That was brutal, though, and I just burnt out towards the end. Of course, it didn't help that I didn't enjoy the game all that much.

[Promophile]

40 hours a week is pretty common if you're a MMORPG junkie. A wasted a few months of my life years ago playing EverQuest for around 12 hours a day.

[Push Upstairs]

I thought 40 hours of gaming was an elite category saved only for those hardcore enough to devote every waking moment to WOW.

[8-bitNesMan]

Last but not least, the 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.

These stats seem flawed to me. 3 consoles and 2 portables? That seems weak (especially on this forum, though I realize we are somewhat of an anomaly). But why would someone with so few machines buy so many games. I'm not trying to brag, but I can't tell you off the top of my head how many consoles and portables I've got at home. I have a job that pays well with minimal expenses and I come no where close to buying that many games per month. I guess when I was younger I was buying more games but it was a rare month that I ever bought 4-5 new titles. And I agree about the hours thing too. Who honestly plays 40 hours a week? I know there are some hardcore hermits out there (I'm lookin at you Alucard79) but most people I know have a balance between work, school, having a life, etc. Well, I'll stop there. I'm posting in an Anthony1 thread and nearing Anthony1 post length. :)

[LAGO]

40 hours is a long time. I know I logged 36 in 3 days when I couldn't put the controller down playing Jade Empire. That is an anolmaly. I usually game under 10 hours a week.

I have a buddy that is addicted to WOW. It'd be a safe bet that he gets 40 a week.

[PapaStu]

I don't dump the gaming hours anymore... 40+ is a tad bit much for me, even when I wasn't working and playing alot in college (though I bet I got close to 40 those 2 years). But the number of owned systems... pfft, I make those numbers weep with ineffectiveness. Only 2 handhelds, hell I can count 3 DS's alone in my near vicinity. I don't even want to know how off the 'purchased games' number would be in regards to me.

[Aussie2B]

I would imagine that the system total is only in regards to currently supported hardware and the games would be probably be ones that are purchased brand new at or close to the MSRP.

The industry doesn't really care if someone has dozens of systems from the 80s and 90s or if they purchase 50 used games a month from garage sales and flea markets.

[heybtbm]

I just assumed that I would be in the hardcore category...until I read the description. I don't play anywhere near 40 hrs/week and don't think I've ever bought 4-5 new games in one month.

[Nesmaster]

Hmm... I'm on my 360 a lot and while I probably have hit 40+ hours easily a few weeks, I don't think it's enough to fall into "heavy".

[smork]

I think, maybe in my life I've knocked out 40 hours of gaming in a week, back when I was unemployed, bored, and the weather was bad. I would say an extremely, extremely busy week for me now is 15 hours, and i'm single. Can't imagine 40 on average.

Now the spending habits -- yah, if you count older and used games i'm sure I've averaged above 4.5 a month over the past 3 or 4 years....

I would definitely say I'm a heavy gamer, but seems the statistics belie that a bit.

[mezrabad]

I really don't think the categories should have anything to do with how much one spends or how much one plays.Regardless of how marketers would like to classify their different segments I consider myself a hardcore game because I've been thinking about this stuff every waking hour of my life since 1990.

If I were independantly wealthy I'd do this stuff 40-80 hours a week.

[BHvrd]

Shiiiiiiit.

That's nothin! I play games 40 hours A DAY!

*pops collar*

[Anthony1]

I don't think anybody should concern themselves of what NPD thinks is a hardcore or "heavy" gamer. They were simply crunching numbers from their survey. They aren't factoring in older consoles. They are probably only considering these home consoles:

PS2
Xbox 360
Nintendo Wii
PS3


It's possible they might also be considering the Xbox 1 and GameCube, but with those statistics, I doubt it.

As for the portables, I'm sure they are only considering:

Nintendo DS
Sony PSP
GameBoy Advance


So, those of us that own TG-16's and Atari Jaguar's and Sega 32x's and Neo-Geo Pocket Color's and Atari Lynx's, need not apply when it comes to these statistics. Also, in regards to the games, they are talking about people buying brand new games at retail.

Again, in regards to the "hardcore" thing, I wouldn't get your panties in a bunch over the 40 hour gaming weeks and 4 to 5 games per month thing. I know I'm a hardcore gamer, and I don't do anywhere close to that. A better definition of a hardcore gamer is how much is gaming involved in your general lifestyle. If you play games, read about games, post about games on message boards, sell games, trade games, think about games constantly, it's a pretty safe bet that you are hardcore, regardless of the actual gaming hours per week and games purchased per month total.

[RARusk]

Upon first reading the topic title I thought this had to do with actual body weight of gamers. I weigh somewhere near 300 myself so in that particular respect I consider myself a heavy gamer.

But as far as that survey goes, I am nowhere close to being what they consider a heavy gamer.

"Again, in regards to the "hardcore" thing, I wouldn't get your panties in a bunch over the 40 gaming weeks and 4 to 5 games per month thing. I know I'm a hardcore gamer, and I don't do anywhere close to that. A better definition of a hardcore gamer is how much is gaming involved in your general lifestyle. If you play games, read about games, post about games on message boards, sell games, trade games, think about games constantly, it's a pretty safe bet that you are hardcore, regardless of the actual gaming hours per week and games purchased per month total."

That's as good a definition of a hardcore gamer as I've seen in quite a while.

[Overbite]

I buy a lot of games but I max out at around 10 hours played a week.

How the hell does someone even fit 40 hours of games into their schedule, unless they have no job or school.

And if they don't, how do they get their 4.5 games a month?

[Frica89]

I buy a lot of games but I max out at around 10 hours played a week.

How the hell does someone even fit 40 hours of games into their schedule, unless they have no job or school.

And if they don't, how do they get their 4.5 games a month?

Yeah, it doesn't seem to make much sense.

[Push Upstairs]

There must be some filthy rich gamers out there who can do 40 hours of gaming and buy 4.5 games a month.

How they managed to find the time to fill out the survey is the true mystery.

[Iron Draggon]

well I guess that makes me an Avid PC Gamer now, who was a Heavy Gamer from the birth of Genesis to the death of Dreamcast... who used to buy 4.5 games PER DAY during most weeks, and always bought at least 4.5 games PER WEEK... so only 4.5 games PER MONTH must've been during the annual summer dry spells... and yes I still buy at least 4.5 games per month now... How do I do it? I simply don't waste all my money on a bunch of other crap!

I agree that the 40 hour per week playtime average must be exaggerated though... I can see someone who's hardcore into playing MMO's logging that many hours, but the rest of us just come up with that number at random because "oh my God, that's as much time as a full time job!" it's just for shock value... no way that many people really play that much all the time!

[Fuyukaze]

I can understand getting 4-5 games a week, that's simple. If your getting old games or even new games that's realy not hard if you shop around. Playing 40 or more hours though, now that's insane. Unless someone was in school, I cant see where they'd have the time. Even then they could only realy do it if they were on break. Not having a job doesnt cut it either as they'd more often be concerned about finding work that they wouldnt have the time nor the motivation to sit at home playing games.

[Push Upstairs]

I took the 4.5 games a month as "new". But where does one find .5 of a game?

Even when I was younger and on summer vacation I still don't think I came anywhere near 40 hours of gaming. Games would get boring after awhile or sometimes I was just in the mood to play with Legos or something.

[Anthony1]

Not having a job doesnt cut it either as they'd more often be concerned about finding work that they wouldnt have the time nor the motivation to sit at home playing games.


Don't underestimate the great unwashed!


THIN THE HERD!!! THIN THE HERD!!!

[Anthony1]

I took the 4.5 games a month as "new". But where does one find .5 of a game?




When one person in the survey buys 6 per month, and one buys 5 per month. These are all averages from the survey of 11,000 people. That's why one group is averaging buying .08 games per month. Because some people buy 1 game every other month, while most buy 1 per month, and it ends up averaging out to .08.

Also regarding the gaming hours per week. People didn't say 40 hours because they figured it was like a full time job. The average ended up coming to 39.3 hours a week. This means that some people might be gaming way more than that, and some less. Some people might be gaming 50 hours per week or even 60 hours per week. I know that sounds nearly impossible, but I can guarantee you that there are some hardcore WOW addicts gaming that much. Remember the dude the died in Korea after gaming like 48 hours straight? There are some crazy fools in this world that are gaming constantly.

Having said all of that, I'm sure some people overstated their gaming hours to sound more hardcore, and I'm not sure if NPD factored that in or not. Normally polls will factor that in, and average downward, but it doesn't specify if they did that or not.

[Steve W]

I tend to buy 10 to 15 new games a month, easy. It's mainly because I'm really cheap and buy Xbox games that are on clearance for $5 each. I don't put a lot of time into playing them, though. I will only spend maybe four hours a week actually gaming. Right now, the collector in me has control.

[heybtbm]

I tend to buy 10 to 15 new games a month, easy. It's mainly because I'm really cheap and buy Xbox games that are on clearance for $5 each.

As has been mentioned before, the "4.5 games per month" the article was talking about was referring to new, retail price games only. I would imagine that everyone at DP buys more than 4.5 used or clearance games in any given month. Very few actually buy that many $49.99 or $59.99 games over the same period.

[Darren870]

I deffintily hit the console and handheld number, deffinitly hit the games bought per month number.

Hrs played in week though...egh im lucky sometimes if I hit 10.

[Push Upstairs]

When one person in the survey buys 6 per month, and one buys 5 per month. These are all averages from the survey of 11,000 people. That's why one group is averaging buying .08 games per month. Because some people buy 1 game every other month, while most buy 1 per month, and it ends up averaging out to .08.

I was being facetious.

[Kamisama]

These days I am far away from 40/h week. But when I was MMORPG-Crazy, 40 hours was more or less nothing. When I did not have a job, every day was like 7 hours of sleep, 1 hour for things like eating and well.. 16 hours of gaming. And since I were part of the real hardcore-gamers you can trust me when I say that there are thousands of peoples living like that.
These might be the people that push the average up to 40h / week. With many other gamers maybe playing like 10/20 hours a week, which are considered "Hardcore" in this study aswell.

[jdc]

The collector in me USED to have control, but these days I swear that my local gaming shop must be wondering if I've died or something. I'm playing my Wii games to death, actually getting every last ounce out of them. So much so, that I have no need to run out and buy any new Wii games at the moment. I currently no longer own a 360 and have yet to buy a PS3, so my gaming habit tends to be really cheap at the moment, probably for the first time ever. I'm mostly grabbing less expensive retro system games or the odd DS game from time to time.

[Alucard79]

I guess when I was younger I was buying more games but it was a rare month that I ever bought 4-5 new titles. And I agree about the hours thing too. Who honestly plays 40 hours a week? I know there are some hardcore hermits out there (I'm lookin at you Alucard79) but most people I know have a balance between work, school, having a life, etc. Well, I'll stop there. I'm posting in an Anthony1 thread and nearing Anthony1 post length. :)


So I guess put me down as a Heavy Hardcore Always Playing Nothing Better To Do I Dont Ever Sleep Gamer, because 40 hours a week is easy to do. I usually hit the 80 to 90 hour a week. Weekdays I rack up about 8 to 12 hours a day while the weekends can be 15 to 20 hours per day. As far as buying games I do buy at least 4 new releases per quarter, usually I buy that many new ones per month as long as some good stuff is coming out. Well that's my 2 cents, time to return to the recliner and play some games!

[Juganawt]

Heavy gamer here. i've bought 6 360 games in the past week, own all 3 current gen consoles, and both current handhelds. I own every XBLA game, and have about 30 VC games.

I tend to buy 2 games a month, play online nearly every day, and play games for at least 5 hours a day - any more than that and the GF goes nuts.

[boatofcar]

I couldn't put in 40 hours a week if I tried. That's just too much for me. Heck, I couldn't do anything for 40 hours a week besides work. I take that back. I could sleep 80 hours a week if I was able :)