The data comes from a series of interviews the research firm conducted with over 6,000 unique respondents through its weekly Video Game Tracking survey over a five week period beginning April 28, 2008, the day before GTA IV’s launch.
Of those surveyed, 736 respondents indicated that they had bought GTA IV and 1,582 respondents indicated positive purchase intent.
According to Nielsen, 17 percent of the respondents who had purchased the M-rated title were aged 7 to 16.
61 percent of the underage buyers indicated that they had purchased GTA IV themselves.
Parents or guardians were responsible for purchasing the game for 80 percent of the underage gamers who didn’t buy the title themselves, with friends, siblings and other relatives responsible for the remaining 20 percent of purchases.