Number of game console users in the U.S. 2012-2017

The timeline presents the monthly number of game console users in the United States from the second quarter of 2012 to the second quarter of 2017. In the last measured period, the number of game console users reached 85.7 million. Console gaming– additional informationThe Holiday season in the United States is the time when gaming companies can be sure to make money. The data clearly shows that all gaming industry segment revenues spike during this time of year. That includes hardware sales as well, so it comes as no surprise that both Sony and Microsoft chose November 2013 to introduce their new generation consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One respectively. Within the following year, those two platforms, as well as Nintendo’s Wii U, experienced a significant growth in unit sales to nearly double the amount. It might also be presumed that the introduction of the PS4 and Xbox One to the market affected the number of game console users in the United States, since between the fourth quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014 the user count grew by nearly five million.The usage of console games has been changing throughout the years with popular demand being focused on multiplatform devices. So nowadays a gaming console is not solely used for gaming. Although 25 percent of respondents who own this device devote their weekly console time to playing games, both online and offline, it is now common to use consoles to watch video content or stream music. However, when it comes to gaming, sources report that PS4 and Wii U console gamers play offline games more often, while Xbox One owners are more likely to play online games. It explains the fact that digital games industry revenues generated by console games reached more than 900 million U.S. dollars in 2014.

本时间线展示了自2012年第二季度至2017年第二季度的美国游戏机用户每月数量。在最后一个测量的周期内，游戏机用户数量达到了8,570万。游戏机游戏——附加信息：在美国，假日季节是游戏公司确保盈利的黄金时期。数据明确显示，游戏行业的各个细分市场在这一时段的收入均呈现显著增长。这包括硬件销售，因此索尼和微软选择在2013年11月分别推出新一代游戏机PlayStation 4和Xbox One，也就不足为奇了。在随后的年份中，这两个平台以及任天堂的Wii U在单位销售量上均实现了显著增长，几乎翻了一番。或许可以推测，PS4和Xbox One的上市对美国的游戏机用户数量产生了影响，因为从2013年第四季度至2014年第一季度，用户数量增长了近五百万。随着岁月的变迁，游戏机游戏的使用方式也在不断演变，热门需求集中于多平台设备。因此，如今游戏机不仅仅被用于游戏。尽管25%的拥有该设备的受访者将每周的游戏机时间用于在线和离线游戏，但现在使用游戏机观看视频内容或流媒体音乐已成为常态。然而，在游戏方面，据报告称，PS4和Wii U游戏机玩家更倾向于玩离线游戏，而Xbox One用户更可能玩在线游戏。这也解释了为什么由游戏机游戏产生的数字游戏产业收入在2014年达到了超过9亿美元的事实。