How the Gaming Industry Expanded to 170 Million American Gamers

The NPD recently stated that 170 million Americans play video games. This is well over half the current population in the United States. Once considered a niche market, the video games industry has now grown into mainstream activity. So what has caused the explosion of popularity for video games? Here are several factors that led the expansion to 170 million American gamers.

NES
While video games existed before the NES, it was never really considered to be a form of entertainments until Nintendo's first system. The NES single-handily helped save the gaming industry from the great crash. Not only did it have gotten many old gamers interested in playing video games again, the 8-bit system also brought in many new ones. Many considered the launch of the NES as the beginning of the new and more popular gaming era. A majority of the older Americans playing video games started on the NES.

Playstation and Playstation 2
The successor to the NES, Super Nintendo, marked the pinnacle for 2D gaming. In order for the industry to continue its growth, it needed to move into the 3D realm. The Playstation and then the Playstation 2 lead the way for 3D gaming in the home console market. As games begun to look closer to real life, the popularity expanded. The production values of games also rose with and started to rival the film and television mediums.

Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii
As successful as the Playstation and Playstation 2 were, the hardcore market, which mostly contains males, were about saturated. Although the video game industry was still growing, the pace wasn't as fast as before. In order for it to reach the 170 million audience threshold in the United States, casual gamers needed to get in on the action.

This is exactly what the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii managed to accomplish. Due to the systems' friendly controls in addition to games that target casual gamers, Nintendo was able to convert many girls, moms and the elderly into video game players. The video games industry is no longer view as an activity for little kids.

PC and iPhone
Finally, the PC and iPhone also contributed heavily to the growth of 170 million American gamers. The PC became a necessity to the world at the same time video games rose in popularity. It provided a standard platform that was already in the homes of many households which then resulted in the conversion of many gamers. The same is starting to come true for the iPhone.

While having 170 million video game players in North America is impressive, the number is far bigger when you add up the worldwide figures. Needless to say, video games are here to stay along side music, movies and other entertainment mediums.