I've spent my fair share, mostly on Fable and Mass Effect.

I think there are a few problems with downloadable content ...

First off, its too expensive. I could be wrong but I suspect the typical publisher would see 4 times the interest in their downloadable content if it was half the price; and they might see similar gains if they cut their price in half again.

Secondly, few games are interesting enough to finish all the content that came with the game; and their effort should be put towards making a more complete initial experience rather than pushing downloadable content.

Finally, publishers are churning out sequels to many of the games that I might be interested in downloadable content at a rate where the downloadable content is easy to ignore. By the time I'm ready to revisit Mass Effect 2 I expect Mass Effect 3 will be released (as an example) so I have no motivation to buy content for Mass Effect 2; and I'm just about ready to revisit Fallout 3 and we have a new Fallout game releasing right away.

So I'm either very special or an all-day sucker in this respect.  I have almost all the dlc for 8-10 games I enjoyed.  6% is way below what I would have expected.  Perhaps NPD aren't quite the guru's we assume or they didn't have all the sources they needed.  Clarification on whether handheld nos. are factored in and a breakdown on home consoles please.    As said above HCs might be above the average, XBL's average would be above PSN and the Wii with all those consoles and few downloaders could cut the average in half.  Just speculating here but I really would have hoped for a better showing even relatively early in the digital age.  Was this a survey or did they get nos. from the all the content providers?   I hope M$ and Sony release some nos. in response.

Edit: Yeah I see it's 6% of U.S. consumers so that means everyone who ever bought anything or who have a device capable of dig. download?  If it includes everyone it's kind of misleading.

You have to read article again. Article doesn't say that 6% of US console users have downloaded DLC, it means 6% of US population have downloaded DLC (including those who don't even have a console). All those figures INCLUDE population who don't have smartphone, console, PC etc. Nowhere it reads that you have to own a device in question. So actual number among console owners is higher.

now that makes more sense.  I was just getting ready to post how NPD is way off.  I remember seeing numbers from MS alone that were way higher than this.