Xbox Video Games: Microsoft – Study Shows Gaming Hours Per Week Up 9%; What ‘Secular Decline’!?

Xbox Video Games: It is no big secret at this point that the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) line of tablets has been struggling to compete at a high level. While the company has not been able to gain nearly as much traction in this space as it would like, it doesn’t mean that everything is doom and gloom.

As you know, Microsoft is one of the top dogs in the video gaming world. With its Xbox in tow, the company has dominated the United States market for quite some time.

While many believe that the video game industry is in a period of decline, a recent report by The NPD Group shows that this is not the case across the board. And as you can imagine, this is good news for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).

According to the Online Gaming 2013 report by NPD, “72 percent of U.S. gamers report gaming online.”

While this is interesting enough, there is another stat that is even more telling for companies such as Microsoft. The same report shows an “an increase in the number of hours spent playing games across the majority of devices surveyed.  This led to an overall increase in the average number of hours played per week for gaming overall, up 9 percent, and for gaming online, up 6 percent.”

In other words, people are playing video games for more hours every week. For Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and the future of Xbox, this has to be good news. This may not be the only thing the company has going for itself right now, but its dominance in the US video gaming market is something it can hang its hat on.

Liam Callahan, industry analyst for The NPD Group, added the following:

“Besides the size of the gaming audience and sales performance, one of the key metrics for the industry to watch is the time gamers spend playing games. This study found that the overall amount of time spent gaming, and time spent gaming online increased across virtually every type of device, and notably so, versus 2012.”

With a growing number of people spending more time gaming, it is only going to help Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and its Xbox in the years to come. This is particularly true if the company is able to release its latest version of the gaming platform in the near future, helping to attract a larger audience.

If you want to learn more about the future of the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox, including product rumors, check out the video on the next page:

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