NPD told Edge that among online gamers surveyed, 87 percent play PC games, down from 90 percent from a 2008 survey. It's still the most widely-used platform for online gaming, NPD said.
Of the 20K surveyed, 25 percent said they used a console for online gaming, up from 19 percent in 2008.
Xbox 360 led the console online gaming pack, with 50 percent of online gamers saying they use Microsoft's machine to play online. Online gaming usage on the Nintendo Wii increased from 18 percent in 2008 to 29 percent in 2009. PS2 dropped "dramatically," NPD said, while PS3 moved to third place on the usage chart, with 20 percent of online gamers saying they used the system to play online.
Microsoft's concerted effort to make online gaming a major component of its console strategy began when the company decided to include a standard ethernet connection in the original Xbox. The Xbox Live online gaming service launched in 2002. Nintendo has been slower to jump on the online bandwagon, but now offers online play and a storefront, while PS3 has the highly-touted Home virtual world and PlayStation Network.
NPD's study includes any kind of online gaming, not necessarily multiplayer online games, analyst Anita Frazier said. "...If I go on to Facebook and play a word game solo, that is online gaming," she said, which partly explains how the PC has been able to maintain its online gaming dominance.
NPD's study also found that the percentage of online gamers in the 13-17 age range increased from 17 to 22 percent this year. The percentage of 18-34-year-olds and 35-54-year-olds playing games online decreased slightly.
An NPD summary of the report states, "These shifts indicate that online gaming may have become more appealing to 13-17 year olds compared to last year, a theme that is echoed by the growth in teens using a console system for online gaming, and a relatively proportional decline among adults, especially ages 25-34, across several systems."