The NPD Group is reporting that 72 percent of U.S. gamers report gaming online, 5 percent more than last year. Their Online Gaming 2013 report also says that the amount of time gaming in general was up 9 percent, and for gaming online was up 6 percent.
“Besides the size of the gaming audience and sales performance, one of the key metrics for the industry to watch is the time gamers spend playing games,” said Liam Callahan, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “This study found that the overall amount of time spent gaming, and time spent gaming online increased across virtually every type of device, and notably so, versus 2012.”
PC is the favored platform for online gaming, with 68 percent reporting that they use a PC for online gaming, though mobile devices are catching up and saw a 12 percent point increase since last year. Despite these trends, 62 percent of online gamers said they prefer to acquire games in a physical format when they can rather than digital.
“While many gamers prefer games in the physical format, the increased availability of digital content paired with a greater amount of connected devices has driven an increase in the number of consumers going online to access the content they want,” said Callahan.
