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NPD: Online gaming hours have grown 10% since 2009

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The NPD has issued a report called Online Gaming 2010 with cites the average number of hours spent each week on online gaming.

Turns out, it has increased 10 percent since 2009.

Also, 20 percent of all games purchased by online gamers were digitally downloaded, which is up from 19 percent for the 2009 study and 18 percent for the 2008 study.

Gamers ages 2 and older play videogames on at least one type of system, 54 percent report play games online, down slightly since the 2009 and 2008 studies - 56 percent and 55 percent, respectively).

The average number of hours spent per week on online has also gone up from 7.3 hours per week in the 2009 study to 8.0 hours per week in the 2010 study. This means that, despite the dip in the overall incidence of online game play, those who are playing, are spending more time playing than they did last year.

“While the percentage of the population that reports playing games has declined slightly, this study details other metrics which point to both stability and growth in both online and offline gaming,” said NPD's Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group.”

Also reported was 71 percent of online gamers saying they have purchased or received games over the 2009 holiday season, with no significant changes with regard to the percent of online gamers reporting acquisition from 2008 to 2010 - which means that purchasing behavior may not have been impacted significantly by the recession and may bode well for future pockets of economic weakness.

“The installed base of video game systems continues to grow, the platforms available to play games continue to expand, and the options for content acquisition have never been greater, especially online,” said Frazier. “And yet, effective monetization of many forms of online gaming continues to be a topic of much debate and discussion within the industry.

The report suggests that C is still the most-used system for online gaming, with 85 percent of online gamers reporting using a PC for online gaming activities.

Among non-PC systems, the Xbox 360 maintains its leadership for the third year in a row as the top video game system used for online gaming at 48 percent, in contrast to 2009, when Wii was leading over PS3 by 8 percent.

It is also suggested that PS3 and Wii are now neck and neck, with about 30 percent of online gamers reporting that they use each system for online gaming.

This is due to an increase in use for online gaming on the part of the PS3, which increased 10 percent since last year.

The top three systems with the highest average hrs/wk spent gaming online are: Xbox 360 at 7.3 hours, PC at 6.6 hours and PS3 at 5.8 hours.

Data was collected via online survey from January 4 – 19, 2010 with 18,872 respondents ages 2-12 and up.

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Stephany Nunneley-Jackson

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Stephany is VG247’s News Editor, with 22 years experience (with 15 of them at VG247). With a brain that lacks adhesive ducks, the ill-tempered, chaotic neutral fembot does her best to bring you the most interesting gaming news. She is also unofficially the site’s Lord of the Rings/Elder Scrolls Editor.

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