You read that number correctly. According to NPD Group's "Gamer Segmentation 2010" report, the "extreme gamer" category of consumers who actively play games are playing 48.5 hours per week. That's over two days out of the whole week. How many "extreme gamers" are there? Who are they?

[image credit: flickr/gnackgnackgnack]

NPD Group breaks down types of game players into a number of categories, including: Extreme Gamers, Avid PC Gamers, Heavy Portable Gamers, Console Gamers, Online PC Gamers, Offline PC Gamers and Secondary Gamers. The report says console and PC use is up, handhelds are down.

The "extreme gamer" category is small, representing only 4% of the total gaming populous, and are typically 29-years-old. What might surprise you is that not all of them are male. The NPD Group told me that while 66% -- in essence, the majority -- are male, 34% of "extreme gamers" are actually women. That number has increased over the past few years, from just 27% in 2008.

Interestingly, they also found "extreme gamers" had the lowest average houshold income, but they purchased 34 games over a three month period, compared to a six-game average overall, suggesting World of Warcraft is not responsible.

"If they're [extreme gamers] buying/receiving 34 games in the past three months," explained NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier over e-mail to me today, "that is a little over 11-per-month. At $50 a game, that would be $550 -- quite a chunk of change for folks with more limited disposable income. So it's reasonable to assume that they're participating heavily in the used market as a means to make their gaming dollars stretch a little further."

Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games usually retail for $59.99 at launch, but it's not common for used versions to be available for $49.99. Wii games, with some exceptions, launch at $49.99.

Overall, however, game time is on the rise. Gamers two-years-old and above are reportedly spending 13 hours a week participating with video games, compared to 12.3 hours in 2009.

For reference, here's now the NPD Group collected their data:

"In January 2010, The NPD Group fielded an online survey that was completed by18,872 consumer panel members ages 2 and older. Responses for individuals ages 13 and older were captured directly, and responses for individuals ages 2-12 were captured by “surrogate reporting,” whereby a parent/guardian brings the child to the computer to answer questions, and the child then answers either with or without the guardian’s assistance. Final survey data was weighted and balanced to represent the U.S. population of individuals ages 2 and older."

I certainly don't fall into the "extreme gamer" category, but I'm considering counting my hours for fun. If you think -- or know -- you're one of these people, drop me an e-mail and let's talk about it.

[image credit: flickr/RyRychan]

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