Nielsen has released a series of statistics on consoles, showing that they are increasingly being used as multimedia devices. It’s interesting to see not just how consumers use their consoles, but the differences between the consoles.

“Fully 87 percent of users age 13+ say they have played video games of some kind for Xbox 360 and Wii, with 80 percent saying they have done so for PlayStation 3,” notes the report. “Much of this is the result of traditional offline play, but nearly half of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 users say they play games online, writes Nielsen. With this in mind, what share of time do both offline and online gaming account for across these consoles On average, Xbox 360 users claim to spend 62 percent of their time with the system on gaming, with online play accounting for nearly the same share as offline. Comparatively, PlayStation 3 users spend just under half of their usage time gaming, and engage relatively more in offline vs. online play than Xbox 360 users.”

DVD/Blu-Ray use is also another popular category, leading the way on the PS3 where it occupies 27 percent of their time with the console, compared to only 11 percent of time on Xbox 360. The Wii, by contrast, is mostly used for its offline capabilities; nearly double the percentage of users’ time is spent in offline gaming for the Wii than any other console.

“All of the analysis of console time up to this point has looked at consumer-reported share of time rather than electronically measured hours,” the report adds. “Though a different data source, metered console usage data can help us understand how big the pie is that is being sliced for each console. Indeed, the total amount of time in hours differs markedly by console. Users 13+ spend 4.9 total hours per week on the Xbox 360, 4.1 hours on the PlayStation 3 and 1.4 hours on the Wii. Males drive these averages for all three consoles, surpassing females in time spent. These differences in time, coupled with the nuances in how that time is allocated, underscore the unique profile of use for each console.”

Source: Nielsen Blog