Most gamers now play online, reports NPD

With the world as connected as it is, online gaming is a natural extension of our lives. And now 72 percent of gamers in the United States play online, according to market research firm NPD Group in its Online Gaming 2013 report.

The number reflects an increase of over 5 percent over 2012. Gamers are also playing more per week because they're playing across devices, an increase of 9 percent overall and 6 percent for online.

People can play online many ways, and PC is only one of them. The number of people who played through computers dropped 4 percent year-over-year to 68 percent of U.S. gamers. Meanwhile, mobile gaming is growing — by 12 percent.

Despite these numbers, 62 percent of gamers still prefer physical to digital content.

"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 NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan.

The NPD reached these findings through an online survey conducted from February 15 through March 4 and completed by 8,867 individuals.

The disastrous launches of SimCity and Diablo 3 might show that we're not ready for an always-on future in terms of reliable server performance, but most of us are turning to the Internet for our gaming needs.

[GameSpot Asia]

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