(I've included a link at the end of this for anyone that wants to read the full story)

NPD has broken down gamers into six groups based on playing and spending habits, here's a synopsis:

33% - "Avid PC Gamers" -  Spend ~13.6 hours/week on mainly a pc or mac and buy 1.4 titles/quarter

22% - "Secondary Gamers" - Spend ~6.5 hours/week on mainly pc or mac, a third own PS2s, they buy 0.8 titles/quarter

20% - "Avid Console Gamers" - Spend ~10.7 hours/week on at least one console, own 1.6 consoles and 0.8 portables, they buy 1.9 games/quarter

15% - "Mass Market Gamers" - Spend ~8.9 hours/week mainly on ps2 or pc, own 1.8 consoles, (no purchase info per quarter given in article)

8% - "Casual Kid Gamers" - Spend ~3.6 hours/week mainly on ps2 and gameboy advance, they buy 0.8 games/quarter

2% - "Heavy Gamers" - Spend ~39.3 hours/week mainly on Xbox 360 and Wii, own 2.8 consoles and 1.9 portables, they buy 13.1 games/quarter, around 3.8 million heavy gamers in U.S.

Link:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6173525.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

There are 3.8 million people that spend almost 40 hours a week on video games? Do these people ever leave the house?

Me = 20% - "Avid Console Gamers" - Spend ~10.7 hours/week on at least one console, own 1.6 consoles and 0.8 portables, they buy 1.9 games/quarter.

I don't even have time to spend like 40 hours on gaming... Do those people work?!... God 40 hours is just sick! Guys who do that: Get a job......              And a life!

I am obviously in this group:
33% - "Avid PC Gamers" - Spend ~13.6 hours/week on mainly a pc or mac and buy 1.4 titles/quarter

Then again, I no longer have the time I used to have to play games

Something in these figures just don't add up. 3.8M people buying 13.1 games per quarter means they're buying 1 game each week. That would mean these people alone would buy 3.8M software titles each week, but when was the last week total sales were even close to 3.8M software titles? And then you have to realise the 98% in the other groups have not even been included in the numbers. So I think NPD screwed up somewhere in their calculation.

If the heavy gamers make up 3.8 million it would mean that there are 190 million gamers in the U.S based on those pecentages... Even considering that those numbers include everyone from the people that play at pogo.com to the ones that own several consoles, are there really that many people that play videogames in the U.S.?

I think those numbers include virtual console/xbox live arcade/etc kinds of games as well.  Still though the numbers do seem high.

I was in the 20% Avid (so much more apt than Hardcore) Console Gamer in the N64 era, but age and job have pushed me into the 15% Mass Market.

i'm a heavy gamer, only i spend 30 hours on gaming, have 7 concoles, 5 handhelds and i do buy at least one game every week.

I was particularly interested in how young "harcore" and "console" gamers are: 6-17 on average. Wow. I knew they were young, but not that young.