I'm gonna try to win WoW's cookie with only spending 2 minutes of looking, granted it's only kids but kids don't suddenly change when they hit 17, so here it goes:

http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_071016a.html

this is the article, I've bolded the important part for clearer ownage:

Amount Of Time Kids Spend Playing Video Games Is On The Rise

Port Washington, NY, October 16, 2007 – From toddlers to tweens to teens, more than one-third of kids in the United States are spending more time playing video games today than they did one year ago. This trend is particularly pronounced for online game play, according to Kids & Gaming, the most recent report from The NPD Group.

According to the report, PCs dominate as the top system used for gaming by kids of all age groups. PCs also dominate in terms of number or years used for gaming, with the average child starting to use a PC for gaming at age 6 and continuing on through age 17, which is longer than any other gaming system measured.

The study, which analyzes the dynamics of kids ages 2 to 17 in the video gaming space, sheds light on system ownership & use, distribution of time, genres, sources of information for finding out about new games, purchase dynamics, parental involvement, and more.

The gaming lifecycle starts with kid-oriented systems, moves into PCs for gaming, and continues with Plug & Play and the more established gaming systems. Then, at about age 10, cell phone gaming begins, and the gaming lifecycle culminates with Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable, and the three next generation console systems (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii)

Among all kid gamers, approximately half are light users (5 hours per week or less) and the other half are medium, heavy or super users (6 to 16 or more hours per week) - the implication being that light use and casual content should not be linked exclusively to a younger user base.

Boys are more inclined to play video game systems, especially consoles, while girls are more inclined to play games on PCs, cell phones and kid-oriented systems. Despite girls starting strong on kid systems, however, they eventually fall off the gaming wagon.

“When kids get to the 6 to 8 year-old age range is when we see them turn into more serious gamers. Not only does the amount of time they spend playing games increase the most dramatically, but they migrate from using ‘kid’ systems to using more portable and console systems as well,” said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. “This appears to be a critical age at which to capture the future gamers of the world.”

Although males and older kids are more likely to spend more time per week on gaming, the most significant jump occurs from ages 2 to 5 to ages 6 to 8. At this time, kids become more serious about gaming, reflected by spending 3 more hours a week, or 75 percent more time than they used to. Time spent on gaming plateaus at ages 12 to 17 at about 10 hours per week.

Kids and Online Gaming
Among kids ages 2 to 17 who play games online, an average of 39 percent of time is spent playing games online as opposed to offline. The average time spent gaming online is statistically higher among females, kids ages 15 to 17 and super users (those who spend 16 hrs/wk or more on gaming). However, it seems there is a disconnect between girls, older users and super users. Although these three groups are all in the same category of spending a higher percent of their gaming time on online, somewhere along the way girls, especially older girls, drop off.

At 91 percent, the vast majority of online gaming among kids ages 2 to 17 is free. Boys and kids in higher income households are more likely to fall into the minority group (9 percent) that pays to play. In addition, the older the child, and the more time that child spends on gaming per week, the more likely that child is to pay for games.

Methodology
The report is based on online survey responses from 3,474 members of NPD’s online consumer panel who personally use at least one video game system or device to play games. Final data is weighted to be nationally representative of individuals age 2-17. Responses for 2 to 12 year olds were captured via surroage reporting, whereby the female parent/guardian, age 21 years or older, is asked to bring their child in this age range to the computer to answer the questions, either with or without her assistance. Fieldwork was conducted from August 13-23, 2007.

COD2 FTW
Lol though haven't used xfire since steam :O

Though at OP pc gaming will never die the fact that theres so many pcs out there games will always exist. PCs have the largest user base, I if you make games for the demographics (sims example) it will sell. I mean theres also all those little flash games and such that pc will always be around as a gaming platform whatever way you see it.

Haven't used xfire since 10th grade when my mom learned that I had over 1k hours spent gaming.

@ssj12:

wtf is Silkroad Online?

Never leave anything auto-login :D

I didn't she just looked up my username and it found me and I came back from school into a lot of crap.

I'm glad my parents don't know much about computers :D

As long as dota all stars (warcraft rpg) exist. gaming will be alive

it is a free MMORPG avaialble online. This site is down right now otherwise I'd like it to you. Other MMORPGs that sometimes appear on the stats are MapleStory or MU Online.

PC gaming is so damned profitable that games like Silkroad Online, Maple Story, MU Online, Dungeon Runners, etc are given away for FREE. BTW, look at these screen shots.



As you can tell, Uncharted is graphically a beast. Diablo 3, isn't. Why is that? Because in the world of console games you have to push the capabilities of the product or else you will be ignored. PCs you don't. Thus making PC games quicker to produce, cheaper to produce, and yield high profit margins. I know you will hear a lot about PC piracy, but the fact is, it is so stupidly easy to hack a 360 with software and I believe Wii is hacked with software as well, that piracy is just as abundant there.

Crysis says hi.

But it's fun to see someone actually arguing the opposite of the usual "PC has the best graphics" that someone usually spits into any console graphics debate.  (And yes, I know it's true, if you keep up your hardware.)