“Casual games are very popular, especially in this economic environment, and they enjoy a broader audience than typical, hardcore PC games,” said Brad Raczka, marketing analyst for Nielsen’s Games division. “Not only does casual gaming draw in traditional ‘gamers’ such as teens and young adults, but also prime advertising targets such as stay-at-home moms, retired people and younger kids.”

Based on data from the first six months of 2009,  41 million Americans play casual games on average. Of the top 20 casual game titles that Nielsen tracked in May 2009, card games, played by 88 percent of casual gamers, were by far the most popular. Puzzle games were a distant second at 9.5 percent.

Casual gamers spend less than half the time non-casual gamers do in each session. While casual game sessions lasted an average of 31 minutes, non-casual was more than double, at 80 minutes per session (World of Warcraft helped bump up this average, with an average play time of nearly 120 minutes).

Casual Gamers Come Back For More

Measured over a seven-month period, the recurring game play rate for casual games was found to match or exceed that for non-casual games. For example, about 20 percent of the 47 million unique gamers who played Microsoft Solitaire at least once during the seven-month period, came back to the game at least once in each of the seven months measured. By comparison, about 12 percent of the 5 million World of Warcraft players who played the game in two or more months returned to it at least once every month.

Cost does not make a significant impact in whether players come back to the games month after month. Nielsen found similar recurring game play rates between those using the free Microsoft Solitaire to those playing the for-charge Great Escapes Solitaire.

Females make up the majority of casual gamers (58 percent), a significant shift from non-casual games, which are much more of a man’s world. Males make up a full 75 percent of those playing non-casual shooter games, and 63 percent of those playing role-playing games. The players of non-casual games also tend to have computers with much more memory, averaging over 2 gigabytes, compared with the relatively modest 0.5 to 1 gigabytes of the casual gamers.

Download Nielsen’s Insights on Casual Games

The Lord of the Rings Online cracked the Top 10 in April, rising to the #3 spot for total minutes played %. While the total share number was modest, the average number of weekly minutes played was a robust 891, the most for any game in the Top 10. The publisher, Turbine, had announced special promotional subscription fees for the persistent online game that runs from April-June, celebrating the two-year anniversary of the game’s release.

For console gamers, PS2 narrowly holds onto the top spot as most overall played console in terms of gaming minutes. With 21.6% of all minutes, PS2 held off Xbox 360’s 21.1%. Meanwhile, Nintendo Wii dropped down a full 3% (to 17.7%) since it’s high in January of 20.7%, perhaps suggesting the initial excitement of playing new Wii games or Wii consoles from the holiday season has begun to wane. Will the May release of Wii Punch-Out!! boost the May numbers? Stay tuned…

Top Game Consoles January 2009

Top  10 PC Game Titles January 2009

Sony’s Playstation 2 was the top game console of 2008, claiming 31.7% of all measured console minutes, according to Nielsen.  The Xbox 360 and Wii ranked second and third, respectively, with 17.2% and 13.4% of all usage minutes between January and October of this year.

Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft” was the most popular PC game title of the year, drawing an average of 0.723% of all PC gamers per minute between January and October 2008.

Among mobile gamers, “Tetris” was the top game for Q3 2008, in terms of share of revenue. 

Top 10 PC Game Titles: U.S.

Top 10 Mobile Games By Revenue Share: U.S. – Q3 2008

Top Video Game Consoles By Usage

View the press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Forbes.

Relive the greatest hits of 2008 — stay tuned on Nielsen Wire for more Tops In 2008 coverage.

Look ahead to the new year with Nielsen Wire’s 2009 Industry Outlook series.

PlayStation 2 again topped Nielsen’s ranking of the most-played video game consoles.

Top 10 PC Game Titles: September 2008

Topline Console Usage – September 2008