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Nielsen: Wii Has Lowest User Activity
Update: Nielsen has corrected some of its findings.
Nielsen's State of the Video Gamer study, released Tuesday, indicates that Wii owners use their console less than Xbox 360 and PS3 owners.
The research firm said Wii owners used their consoles 6.8 percent of the total amount of time that they could have used the system during Nielsen's measurement period in December 2008.
This compares to Xbox 360's "Active User Percentage" of 10.2 percent and PS3's 10.6 percent, which both led the way amongst current and last-gen consoles.
In average usage days, Wii trailed all other consoles except for GameCube with five days (GameCube had 4.5 days). PS3 and Xbox 360 were used 6.8 and 7.1 days average, respectively.
Wii also was last in terms of daily average number of sessions with 1.78 sessions, versus 2.42 for PS3 and 2.15 for Xbox 360.
Nielsen noted that Xbox 360 and PS3 have more features (particularly multimedia capabilities) than other consoles measured in the survey, which would lead to more usage.
"Predominant users of the Wii and GameCube are likely to use these consoles at most once a week and for fewer minutes and the fewest number of sessions compared to the other two groups of consoles," the study read.
Nielsen's sample includes 17K U.S. television households.
More trends can be found in Nielsen's report (pdf).
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Looks like Neilson screwed up guys... Don't think this is gonna sit well with most of you, but here goes: http://kotaku.com/5205249/nielsen-drops-the-ball-on-console-usage-number...
Can't check that site at work, blocked. I'll check it out when I get home. What's the jist of it?
I'm not saying -it'll be a suprise for when you get home!
I hate when they block stuff at work. Gladly, no gamers at my job so all the gaming sites are safe. Is gmail blocked at your work?
Hmm, not sure. I don't have gmail (not even really sure what that is).
Nick. You're failing right now. Gmail is the best thing about work. Chat with all your buddies. It saves me from lunacy.
Figured I'd hear something like that lol. I've heard a bit about it, but my work has a super strict filter for the internet so that's most likely blocked, too. I'm really lucky this site isn't blocked, but most likely it will be blocked eventually and I won't be on this site anymore since I spend about 90% of my time on here while I'm at work.
Ken, i wasn't familiar with any chat feature with Gmail. I thought it was just a webmail thingy, like Hotmail or what have you. Are you saying there's an online chat option mixed in there too?
Yup, it's on the left hand side. Just click on the option "sign into chat". Gmail chat is awesome. I use it just as much as MSN Messenger (which is banned at my job). Try to sign into it and I'll give you my e-mail (or give me yours) and you can add me (and I'll add you).
Sweet Sister of Saturday, that is top notch stuff. Boredom begone.
Why should we give a damn about what Brigitte Nielsen thinks?! Oh, hang on a minute...
Seriously though, I'm not sure that "17K U.S. television households" is a fair representation of Wii users.
If it's not a fair representation of Wii users, then it's not a fair representation of 360 and PS3 users either. Which, in the end, makes it even again.
to be fair, wii does not have a lot of games worth playing for...
at least for gamers like US. but nintendo isn't targetting just us, if anything their target demographic are casuals and some core. most of the people who purchase wii don't even read sites like Edge so most likely they probably do not give a damn about what hardcores even think or the relevance of what this report says.
plus most of the people who own wii most likely has not turned on their usage info...
i say leave nintendo alone. PS3 and Xbox360 obviously targets a different demographic which i'd say they're doing a fine job... and looking at stats, i'd also say nintendo is doing a better job at targetting the demographics they want to target. regardless of usage stats, they sure are kicking the holy crap out of HD consoles..
oh, and also the report only says people who bought wii actually have a LIFE outside of video games.
so get over it people.
this report is irrelevant to sales. come back to me when usage equals sales.
What's the takeaway here? That Wii owners have lives?
Hmm, perhaps.
I have to go with Zach on this one though. I'm married with 3 kids, don't get home till around 5, then I have to eat, deal with my 9 y/o's homework, help with the 6 month old and 3 y/o with baths, get their ass to bed (get their as to bed....get get get their ass to bed..get their ass to bed). Then I have/want to spend time with the wife, then by 10:00 I'm exhausted. This week I've browsed the 360's marketplace...and that's about it. 0 Minutes for me. But I own a 360 not a Wii.
Maybe it's not that they have lives, it's just that as others have mentioned already, gaming is just not their top entertainment priority.
"Maybe it's not that they have lives, it's just that as others have mentioned already, gaming is just not their top entertainment priority."
Well frankly it should be their priority, the bloody fools.
That's what happens when you aim a console squarely at non-gamers while ignoring the needs of the gamers. The non gamers buy the Wii in a red haze of novelty-driven madness, and then (lo and behold) remember that they're not gamers, and the gamers simply look at all the non-gamer stuff and wish they'd never bought a Wii.
I know 3 people (2 gamers, 1 non) who own Wiis and they started off loving the idea of it. But soon it began to gather dust. In the case of the gamers they turned their attention to their Xbox 360 and PS3. In the case of the non-gamer, he actually bought a shed load of games up front, and even the board, but he never actually got 'round to using it, and neither did his little kids. The kids play their DS's instead.
of course it's played less than PS3/360. It doesn't take a genius to know that most wii owners are consumers who probably use the wii for a couple of hours max a week like they might watch a DVD or read a book etc. PS3/360 users are the kinds of gamers to plough hours into a title every night. I use my PS3 pretty much when ever I have spare time (which isn't as often as I'd like if truth be told). I have used my PS3 an insane amount of time compared to when I owned a wii.. which i sold as it was tucked behind my TV for about 6 months literally gathering dust. I'm not being a fan boy. just saying it like it is mam
This is the most intelligent statement made so far in this discussion. You are right. The Wii and the PS3/360 audiences are different types of people.
People who buy the PS3/360 are primarily gamers. That is their #1 choice for entertainment. If they have some down time in the evening or weekend, they pick up a game and play. So that would mean a higher playtime as shown here.
The Wii however, has a large percentage of owners who have games in the #2 or #3 spot in their choice of entertainment. When they have down time, they are more likely to check out what is on tv, watch a movie, or read a book/magazine than to go for the games. Taht does not mean all Wii owners are like that, but a large percentage of them are.
I consider myself a more traditional gamer, but I don't have the time I use to have to play games. So far this week (Sunday through today) I have played a total of 45 minutes. By the end of the week, I may get that up to 2 hours if I am lucky. Not because I don't like playing games, but because I other things that take precedence over gaming. So I can easily see why the Wii has a lower use percentage than the other two.
Not only that, but like the article states, the HD consoles are also used as movie players (DVD, HDDVD, Blu-Ray, Netflix, movie downloads, etc). I don't know the methodology behind the Neilson study, but judging from the Nintendo channel, which downloads playtime directly from people's Wiis, I'd say it's getting a lot more playtime than this study suggests - but the limitation of that is not everyone has downloaded the Nintendo channel or agree to have their playtime data Big Brother'd.
I would hazard a guess that the kind of people who agree to have their gaming habits "big brothered" are the ones that are more likly to play games regularily. I didn't even know the Nintendo Channel offered the option to have your gaming data collected. I can only imagine the "soccor moms" and "grannies" are equally unaware, thus throwing off the Nintendo Channel's data as an accurate cross-section of ALL Wii users, versus more regular Wii users.
Ozzman,
That's an astute observation. But more of an understanding of how Nielson gathers their data would help in this situation. Nielson research actually hooks up a device to all your TVs to monitor your usage. You get paid like 25 bucks a week or month for I think 90 days. So they don't track it via any network. If you are approached by Nielson media whatever they're called, you have to consent to having devices hooked up to your tvs. I used to think what everyone watched mattered, but its a statistic based on x thousands of homes that have the Nielson devices hooked up. So, all Wii usage would then be monitored, not just the networked Wiis. This was a reply to both you and I think Ken. I may be misunderstanding what you guys are saying though.
Methinks you might be.
If you install the Nintendo Channel on your Wii menu, you can engage an option where Nintendo monitors your gaming habits and hours and such, as uses it for "market research." We were discussing that option in particular, not the Nielson collection method. Since the Nintendo method requires you to have a Wifi hookup, install the Nintendo Channel, read and accept the "monitoring," and, i imagine, some sort of setup process, this sounds like a lot more effort then the average Wii user would care to do. Obviously, Nielson's system is all done for you, so most people would be a lot more inclined to use Nielson's way rather then Nintendo's way, thus, in my estimation anyways, making Nintendo's data not an accurate representation of the Wii user base as a whole, versus Nielson's potentially more accurate method.
If every Wii owner used the Nintendo Channel, we would have a better idea of how often people play.
But as for Nielson, Nick is right. They have a device that is hooked to your tv. Every time the TV is on, it registers what channel you are watching or if you are watching a movie or playing a game. It can tell which game system you are playing as well. So what they do is calculate based on how long the tv is on and figure out how much of that time is spent playing which console, watching a movie or watching tv.
That is what this article is basing their data from. Out of the total time your tv is on, how much of that is playing games.
I am aware of all of that. We branched off into the Nintendo Channel data, away from the Nielson topic
Got it.
Ninty have made so much money out of this I doubt they will want to go back to the Gamecube and N64 model of trying to compete with the big boys, with big money. I think we will eventually see Ninty slide into a position where it can no longer be called a console-maker, rather a life-style gadget maker.
Not surprising for an extremely pragmatic company which started off making cards.
"we will eventually see Ninty slide into a position where it can no longer be called a console-maker, rather a life-style gadget maker"
So, you see the Wii as step away from being a dedicated gaming console, versus the 360/PS3 which does Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, streaming movies/TV, online chatting, etc.... I would be thinking the exact opposite, where the Wii is most dedicated to offering "games" and offers little else, while the others become more life-style gadget makers, with HD capabilities, streaming everything, giant online communities, being more "entertainment hubs." They're lifestyle gadgets, for the gaming/videophile lifestyle
I've been gaming since the 80s and the Wii is the only console I've ever owned that I'm glad isn't the only one I own. I mean, back in the early 90s, I could only afford a Mega Drive but that provided me with all the quality games I needed and I never felt like I was missing out. Even the Dreamcast single-handedly fulfilled all my gaming needs between 1999 and 2002 with its legion of AAA titles. The Wii, for a system fast approaching its third birthday, is starved of quality content and potentially good games (such as Sonic and the Secret Rings) are ruined by the regularly floaty and unresponsive motion controls which plague the console.
Well to be fair, there is also Zack & Wiki, RE4, No More Heroes, Okami, Metroid Prime: Corruption, Super Paper Mario and the recently released World of Goo and MadWorld . . . that is about it.
I know some people will go on about Smash Bros. and Mario Kart, but to be honest with you, if you've played older versions of those games and the GCN and N64, then you've pretty much have played the Wii versions - nothing of any real significance was added for the Wii updates of those series.
So that leaves literally less than a dozen games worth playing on the Wii since the system came out almost three years ago.
Again, some people will argue that a bunch of lesser games are worthy titles, but I have played most of those, and they really are not . . . not when you can get the likes of BioShock, Metal Gear Solid 4, Halo 3, Gears of War, Killzone 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, G.R.A.W., Orange Box, Fable 2, Fallout 3, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Grand Theft Auto IV, LittleBigPlanet, Halo Wars, Rainbow Six Vegas, Valkyria Chronicles, Mass Effect, Left 4 Dead, Street Fighter IV . . . and the list of AAA standout titles on Xbox 360 and PS3 just seem to keep going on and on and on . . . especially not when you can get a library of A-list games for about the same amount of cash, as you can get the lesser titles on Wii for.
I own all three consoles, but I know for my money had I to choose only one, the Wii would most certainly not be that one. If I want exercise, I'm happy just going to the gym like I always have. But when I want to sit down, alone, with my girl, or with my buds, and just enjoy the medium of videogames, I'll chose a real game console every time. I'm almost always booting up the 360. Or when not the 360, then the PS3. Yet until MadWorld came out last month, I actually went an eleven month stretch without more than renting a single game for my Wii for more than a day - that's about the time span between Okami Wii-make release and Nad World. You pick up those Wii games from the rental place, try them out, and most are not even worth a full rental; much less plunking down $50 for a purchase. It's a good thing where I rent gives a big discount for same day returns. So between most of what's released on the Wii being rubbish, and the fact that the other systems always had something better to play on them at any given moment, eleven whole months passed, and I did not find any game worthy a single purchase on the Wii.
Nintendo may be on top of the world right now, but they surely sacrificed their soul as a top tier videogame company, to get there.
What a surprise, I mean once you've played Zelda and Mario, what else is there to do on the Wii? Wii Fit? I'd rather go for a jog and I hate jogging.
Exactly, hell the only game I brought and played was SSB Brawl, and that only lasted a couple of days then I grew bored of it.
I'm now having the most fun from my Wii, sold it to my aunt and with the money I am spending it on hookers and drugs.
Thanks Wii for the good times