Fourty-one Percent of US Households Have a Video Game Console

Nielsen released a new study this week that claims that there is at least one video game console in 41 percent of all U.S. households. This is an 18.5 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2004. The report if called “The State of the Console” and was conducted by the newly launched Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services division, the division spearheaded a study from the fourth quarter of 2004 until the fourth quarter of 2006, attempting to study trends in console ownership in the U.S.

The Nielsen study concluded that about 46 million U.S. homes have a console game device in them by the last quarter of 2006. That averages about 150 million people that have access to a video game console. The study further found that two-thirds of men who are between 18 and 34 years of age in television households also have access to game consoles. That is not much of a surprise to most.

Additionally, console gamers are using the Internet for gaming more and more. The study found that more than 4.4 million households are connected to the Internet. But this is just the first in a series of video game studies being conducted by Neilsen. This should allow game publishers to more effectively create in-game ads and allow the tracking of just how many people are seeing those ads, something that has been mission to this developing industry until now.