Most Popular Video Game Console Is Still The PS2
68 million people played video games on a console last month, and an astonishing 42% spent that time playing on the last generation Sony console, the Playstation 2. Nintendo's Wii has garnered a lot of press for its explosive sales and fun, intuitive controller; but if you add sales of the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3, they add up to about the total number of Wiis sold last month. People won't stop buying and using Playstation 2s.
The numbers suggest that older machines remain popular despite last November's high-profile debut of Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3, which had 4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. Nintendo's GameCube ranked fourth with 5.8 percent.
Nielsen GamePlay Metrics has started tracking video game activity using data from Nielsen's existing sample of TV viewers. Nielsen Co.'s sample includes more than 12,000 U.S. households with about 33,000 individuals.
I stand by last year's assessment of video game consoles. The Playstation 2 is the greatest device ever devised by man.
