A new study from NPD Group has found that Extreme Gamers play games for an average 45 hours per week and have bought 24 titles in the past three months. The "Games Segmentation 2008" report identified 7 gamer segments based on usage, ownership and frequency. Of the 174m gamers who use PCs, Macs and video game systems 3% are Extreme Gamers, 9% are Avid PC Gamers, 17% are Console Gamers, 14% are Online PC Gamers, 15% are Offline PC Gamers, 22% are Young Heavy Gamers and 20% are Secondary Gamers.
Young Heavy Gamers represent at least 1/3 of any system's owners and are strong users of portable platforms: 60% of Nintendo DS (NDS) and PlayStation Portable (PSP) owners are Young Heavy Gamers. Although the PC is used for gaming more than any specific console, Console Gamers, Young Heavy Gamers and Extreme Gamers are all more likely to play games using a console.
NPD Group: http://www.npd.com, 11/08/2008