Sony's PlayStation 2 accounted for 42 percent of video game console usage during June, and PC gamers played World of Warcraft more than four times as much as any other PC game, Nielsen reported today as it launched Nielsen GamePlay Metrics(TM), the first service of its kind to electronically track video game console usage and games played on PCs.


68.1 million individuals used a video game console in June, playing an average of 7.5 days during the month. On the days they played, Xbox 360 users logged an average of 2.2 sessions, with an average session length of 61 minutes. In contrast, PlayStation 3 users' logged an average of 1.9 sessions, with an average session length of 83 minutes, on the days they played.

"With Nielsen GamePlay Metrics, we have significantly advanced the understanding of how video game consoles are used and which games are actually being played," said Jeff Herrmann, Vice President of Nielsen Games and Nielsen Wireless. "This is the first glimpse of metered in-home video game player data, providing game publishers, console manufacturers, advertisers and competing entertainment media with the most accurate, objective, and quantifiable metric available. We believe this will change the discussions surrounding which games get developed for what consoles and how publishers represent their actual audience to advertisers."


Nielsen GamePlay Metrics provides electronic ratings and proprietary survey data to show who is playing games, on which systems, at what times and, when integrated with other Nielsen data, illustrates which other media platforms are also engaging gamers and which consumer goods they're likely to buy. Ultimately, GamePlay Metrics will establish a metric that can be used for buying and selling dynamic and static advertisements in PC and console video games.