…and already apparently passed the CW. From MediaWeek:
Americans, as a whole, spend more time playing video games than they do watching the CW. And video games—the real “5th Network”–may even be closing in on NBC.
Those are just a few of the conclusions that can be drawn of a new report issued by Nielsen PreView called The Video Game Handbook, which provides marketers a sense of the scope and scale of the growing video game audience. According to the data derived from Nielsen’s National People Meter back in the fourth quarter of last year, usage of console video games (gaming systems which are connected to a user’s TV) accounted for a whopping 64 billion minutes in December.
[...]
Overall, the Wii now accounts for the highest percentage of usage minutes for adults, per the report. And not necessarily young adults; nearly of third (32 percent) those usage minutes were consumed by women 35 and older.
And here I thought people were spending more time with their families outdoors…
I’m a game reviewer from New Zealand and I think this is good for the gaming industry and advertisers are already capitalising on video games just play Fight Night and you see Burger King logos everywhere. Too bad for tv though I watch a lot of tv anyway such as WWE programming Flight of the Conchords and Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles though it looks as if that show will be canceled soon. We are yet to show episode 11 onwards for the 2nd season but from the soubds of things it gets boring.
I assume in New Zealand you won’t go through the two-month TSCC hiatus that Fox put us fans through here in the States. That didn’t help matters.
But, yeah, episode 12 is “Alpine Fields” – VERY boring – but really good performance by Brian Austin Green.
Episode 13 is the last show before the hiatus here in the states – it was a “mini-cliffhanger” you’ll find very interesting.
Episodes 14, 15, 16, and 17 – boring again. Well done, of course, but does nothing for the story arc. Mostly more “Crazy Sarah” stuff.
18 and up to the ending episode 22 will be pretty good. Hang in there.
Unfortunately you’re right, the show is done for.
Oh, episode 11 is “Self Made Man” – it’s an all-Cameron episode! You WILL like it, even if does nothing to move the story arc along.
Let me guess. They’re comparing 24 hours a day of video game usage to 3 hours a night of NBC Primetime.
If so, Nielsen should know better.
Even I don’t spend 24 hours a day infront of a computer…
Mikey, there is TV all day long. This is not only being compared to primetime.
Julia, are you sure? Does it actually say that in the article or have you seen the Nielsen report?
“usage of console video games (gaming systems which are connected to a user’s TV) accounted for a whopping 64 billion minutes in December.”
That whopping figure equates to 7 minutes per American per day.
It’s also equivalent to a 3.9 rating in Primetime among Persons 2+, which would put you in shouting distance of NBC.
But it equates to a 0.5 rating on a total day basis, and we know that the combined viewing to NBC and their affiliates throughout the total day is way higher than that.
I think Nielsen screwed up this analysis, and it goes without saying that the distinction will be utterly lost on the people who write about it.
Mikey, do you think the CW has 64 billion minutes a month across all dayparts? I don’t (maybe 50 billion though!).
I think they were comparing all day to all day, but what the article might not have noted (I’d have to go back and read it) is how much of a gap between the CW and NBC exists on a minutes of engagement basis.
I do think it would be interesting to just compare video game playing during prime time to TV viewing during prime time. I’m sure Nielsen has those sort of figures somewhere in their data. Does playing decrease when there are shows to watch, or do gamer types not really watch much TV, at least not in a traditional way?
they can definitely measure it. But the closest the article came to talking about it was:
Interestingly, video game users appear to shift back and forth from video game mode to TV mode in a consistent pattern. Among console users, their gaming peaks around 7:00 p.m. while TV viewing peaks around 9:00 p.m. That perhaps indicates that advertisers should attempt to use both media to reach consumers in tandem, said Nielsen. “In general, many gamers give way to the primetime TV hour as it approaches, indicating a complementary approach to the two mediums would be most efficient,” read the report.
If the CW would just give us Supernatural and Reaper computer games, this wouldn’t be as much of a problem for them.