Research and data collection firm The Nielsen Company has issued a list of the past year's most-played video game consoles, using data from the first 10 months of 2008.
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According to Nielsen, the PlayStation 2 topped console usage, followed by the Xbox 360 and Wii. Meanwhile, the original Xbox was played more in 2008 than the PlayStation 3, which ranked as the fifth most-played console of the year.
Video Game Console Usage:
- PlayStation 2 - 31.7% Usage Minutes
- Xbox 360 - 17.2% Usage Minutes
- Wii - 13.4% Usage Minutes
- Xbox - 9.7% Usage Minutes
- PlayStation 3 - 7.3% Usage Minutes
- GameCube - 4.6% Usage Minutes
- Other - 16.2% Usage Minutes
Data from Jan - Oct 2008. Usage Minutes % is the percent of all measured console minutes. 'Other' consists of any other console systems found in the home. As of May 2008, the PS2 had sold 42 million units in the U.S., though Sony did not provide a worldwide figure. In October, the PlayStation 3 was nearing 17 million units sold worldwide, while the Wii was approaching 35 million units.
In November, Microsoft claimed that the Xbox 360 had outsold the original Xbox, implying that its second-generation console had surpassed lifetime sales of 25 million.
The exact methodology Nielsen utilized to discern the above data was not provided. The firm, which tracks everything from television shows to the top mobile websites, uses a number of methods for its various reports, including surveys, monitoring boxes, sales data, and an actual human that observes and notes a participant's behavior.
