More than 70 percent of Americans playing video games

"A report today from the NPD Group, a New York-based market research firm, reveals that 72 percent of the U.S. population played video games last year, up from 64 percent in 2006.

And among the people playing games, 58 percent said they played online.

The online participation included everything from children's game sites and casual word, card and puzzle games to the hard-core role-playing games such as "World of Warcraft" and online racing and combat games through consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

The number of online gamers relative to the total U.S. population is 42 percent so far this year, up from 40 percent in 2007.

In breaking down the online participation, NPD reported that "The PC platform continues to be the driving force in online gaming, with 90 percent of online gamers stating they use a PC to play games online, 19 percent claiming they use a video game system (console or portable) and 3 percent claiming they use a cell phone.

"Four out of 10 online gamers are ages 2-17, driven heavily by kids ages 6-12. Kids ages 2 to 12 are driving more than 25 percent of online gaming, while 18-24 year olds only represent 10 percent of online gaming.""

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