Nielsen’s Latest Game Report Breaks Down Viewing And Spending Habits

Have you ever been curious in terms of where gaming is going these days, and what trends are popular? Nielsen has a report for that.

The company's Nielsen Games firm has just published a new report for the year that breaks down where people are playing their games, as well as other decisions, such as where they're spending their money, and where they're watching game action happening. It's a big, illustrious report, but some interesting information has emerged from it.

First off, viewership of video games seems to have reached a new all time high. Out of those surveyed, 70 percent indicated that they watch some form of video game-related content over the past year, followed by GameSpot (21 percent), IGN (18 percent), Twitch (15 percent) and Steam (14 percent). It's interesting that Twitch has such a low number, but keep in mind that it has a large enough audience to keep Amazon, the company that bought it a couple of years ago, quite content.

There are also numbers in regards to how gamers are spending their money on their favorite habits. Nielsen reports that an estimated 38 percent of console and PC gamers are spending less money on games compared to what they bought the previous year. As to why, 34 percent of these players indicated that the games they already bought were still keeping them quite occupied, while 30 percent noted that they were content with free games being offered through various services, as well as trials and demos. Finally, for one of the smaller reasons, some gamers are simply waiting for these games to go down in price, either temporarily or permanently, before taking the plunge with their wallets.

Last but not least, gamers were asked what decisions they make when it comes to purchasing games. Most rely on genre, like fighting and shooters, with 80 percent noting it to be a big difference maker. Graphics were also a pretty notable reason at 74 percent, and the game's storyline was third with 71 percent – not bad, considering multiplayer gets a lot of focus these days.

Check out the full report here.