Analyst's report confirms videogaming has gone mainstream

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Deloitte has released its latest USA media-use survey, indicating that 60 percent of the country's households now own at least one video game console.

For the purposes of the survey, the US population was split into four age ranges: Millennials (those between 14 and 26 years old), Generation X (27-43), Baby Boomers (44-62) and Matures (63-76). Seventy percent of those between 27 and 43 years old now own a games console, and 44 percent of the 44-to-62-year-old age range do also.

Those figures are up by nearly half in comparison to Deloitte's 2006 State of Media Democracy report, and though during 2009 there has been an overall fall in software and hardware sales, 2008 was especially good for the industry, with the PS3 and Nintendo DS shifting 1 million more units than in 2007, and the Nintedo Wii near doubling its US hardware sales from 6 to 10 million.

A comparison of the NPD Group's hardware sales data for January - November 2008 and 2009 also shows that despite an overall fall from 34 million to 23 million units, the Nintendo DS has increased its sales by 1 million, just as it did during the same period in 2007. The DS has proven to have incredible mass-market and cross-generational appeal, aided by its portable pocket-size form factor, intuitive controls, yearly hardware improvements and cheaper price tag.