1. By genre, strategy games led the way in the US in 2011, making up 27.6% of all videogames sold that year. Role-playing had second place according to a survey by the NPD group.
2. VGChartz published figures last year on the most popular PC games sold worldwide a year ago. The Sims were ahead of the pack with over 16 million units sold; World of Warcraft followed with almost 12 million; StarCraft joined the top 3 with a little over 11 million. Theme Hospital, meanwhile, had to make do with a meagre 3.99 million – which still leaves it among those games classified as a huge commercial success.
3. By the end of last year, there were some exciting developments on the game console market as well. Wii Sports was the winner, with a staggering 79.65 million units sold. In general Nintendo dominated the ranking, as all of the best-selling videogames in the top 10 were released by the Japanese company.
4. Last year US gamers spent $5 billion on gaming hardware and $2 billion on accessories, according to the NPD group.
5. Among children 0 to 8 years of age in the US, 13% play videogames once a day, 20% less often than once a week and 48% have never played a game at all. The survey was conducted by Common Sense Media – looks like most parents are still monitoring young children’s videogame activity pretty closely.
6. Interesting. The majority of videogame users in the US are 18-49 years old – 53%. 29% are 50 and older, while 18% are under 18, according to information from Ipsos.
7. Last year 42% of videogamers were female, while 58% were male (Ipson MediaCT). The number of females playing has been increasing since 2006 – looks like we gals are catching up.
8. Social gaming is also gaining in popularity. Last year 33% of hardcore social gamers were under the age of 30, followed by 26% being over 50.
9. On average in 2011 an American spent 131 hours playing videogames.
10. Based on recent figures from Newzoo, the US had 145 million active gamers. Second place is held by Russia with 38 million videogame fans, but Germany is breathing down its neck with 36 million. Will one of the two be able to overtake the US someday? That remains to be seen.
While it may take time for the trend to develop fully, an increasing number of people prefer to play videogames online or on mobile phones, if various internet statistics are to be believed. While traditional videogames are still the main money generator in the business, a quiet, but steady rise has been detected in online or mobile gaming popularity, as this terrific infographic by Statista demonstrates.


