Nielsen has done a study of gaming industry from January 2008-January 2009. It provides some interesting insights.

Women Rule

Turns out majority gamers are girls! That’s not me saying it, to be honest, I have hardly spotted a girl playing PC games. According to Nielsen (pdf) report, females above the age of 25 make up 46% of PC gamers in US. Now this stat left me confused but the next line got me back on track, because when Nielsen conducted the study they did not just concentrate on 3D PC games which we have all grown to love. They all studied flash games and card games which come by default with Microsoft.

Card Trick

Turns out about 17 million people play these card games with Solitaire being played by 17 million people in the month of  December 2008 alone. Nielsen studied 184,000 PC gamers as part of the study.

Among ‘genuine games’ it only World of Warcraft that topped the list which was the 7th most played game by both men and women.In December 2008 alone, about 1.8million people played the MMO which has been blamed for everything under the sun from family feuds to bankruptcy.

Second Life to After Life

Another trend to be noted in PC gaming is the decline of the second-life. The user base fell from 500,000 players in January 2008, to a little more than 200,000 players in January 2009. Time for Amul to shut shop in second-life?

What’s With the Youngsters?

Either the young people (under 25) have an attention deficiency problem or they are too much into consoles. It so happens that only gamers who come in the age group of 25-55+ spend around 30mins in a go, playing PC games. More on possible reasons later.