This article is from the first edition of The Video Game Librarian website I published between 2008 and 2010. It was originally written on August 3, 2009.

The NPD Group has released a new report about the video game community and it shows that more than 50% of the US population can now officially be classified as “Gamers.” The 2009 Gamer Segmentation Report (via GameSpot) is based on a survey of 21,000 respondants that took place in January. Survey takers were asked about their gaming habits (or lack thereof) and through the use of statistical sampling, The NPD Group pegged the current US “Gamer” population at 169.9 million, an increase of over 4.3 million “Gamers” from last year’s survey.

The biggest subgroup in the NPD’s survey was dubbed “Secondary Gamers.” That group is mostly made up of women who play video games less than four hours per week. They are also unlikely to own a game console and do their gaming on a PC (likely through casual game sites like PopCap, Pogo, or Facebook). This is in contrast to the smallest subgroup, the “Extreme Gamers,” who play more than 40 hours per week.

Other classifications from the report include:

• “Console Gamers” (32.9 million) – Mostly male, they play around 12 hours a week and own at least one game console.
• “Online PC Gamers” (25.9 million) – Mostly female, on the average they play for eight hours and do most of it online.
• “Avid PC Gamers” (17.3 million) – They play, on the average, 23 hours of PC games a week.

Those interested in the full report can purchase it from The NPD Group’s official website.