US gamer population at 170 million: NPD

NPD has released a report citing that the number of US gamers increased by 4.3 million in 2008 going from 165.5 million to 169.9 million, while approximately 67.3 million Americans use the PC as a primary gaming platform.

For reference, the Census Bureau estimates that there are 304 million people living in the US, which means that 55 percent of them play games.

Breaking down the numbers into seven types of players, NPD has estimated the following:

* Console Gamers: 32.9 million (males owning one or two systems playing 12 hours a week)
* Extreme Gamers: play 40 hours a week
* Secondary Gamers: 33.6 million (mostly females playing less than four hours a week; don’t own consoles)
* Heavy Portable Gamers: 30.0 million (own at least one portable; average age of 19)
* Online PC Gamers: 25.9 million (mostly females, 73 percent of which play online eight hours per week)
* Avid PC Gamers: 17.3 million (playing 23 hours per week)
* Offline PC Gamers: 24.1 million (spend 82 percent playing unconnected to the internet)