Female gaming audience leaps up in 2009

According to a report conducted by market research company NPD, 2009 has seen a sharp rise in the number of females making up part of the total audience for systems and games.
Titled Gamer Segmentation 2009, the research looked at ownership, usage and frequency across several categories, including console, secondary; online PC, avid PC, offline PC, heavy portable, and 'extreme' gamers. According to NPD's report, females have made the most ground in the console category, and now make up 28 per cent of the market, compared to 23 per cent in 2008. NPD suggests that this is because of the rise in usage figure of the Wii. Female gaming numbers also increased by four per cent in the portable and extreme gaming categories.
"Last year was one of the most transformative in history in terms of defining the audience for gaming," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst at The NPD Group. "Even with the increased competition from mobile and social network gaming, the console gamer segment added the most new participants to its ranks in the last year."

The report also pointed to the fact that now 38 per cent of gamers' time spent playing game's is online, which shows no increase or decrease in relation to the previous year.

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