And 2008 Goes To…The PS2?

The PS2 was the most used console in 2008, beating out all current-gen systems.

PS2 took up 31.7% of console players’ gaming time according to end of the year Nielsen ratings. Coming in second was Xbox 360 with 17.2% and Wii with 13.4%. Surprisingly (but not too surprisingly) the PS3 fell behind all other current-gen consoles as well as the original Xbox and its predecessor the PS2. Even the old Gamecube almost beat out the PS3 in console usage last year.

Here are the console usage stats based on % of time played vs. other consoles:

PlayStation 2 31.7%
Xbox 360 17.2%
Wii 13.4%
Xbox 9.7%
PlayStation 3 7.3%
GameCube 4.6%
Other 16.2%

There are no stats for console games, but there is for most played PC game. WoW came in first and was followed by some odd titles I didn’t expect to see, such as the original Halo and Diablo 2.

What a wacky year. I’m sure the console stats will be looking a little more normal next time around. The current-gen consoles are still just getting started and haven’t seen their sales slow as of yet (except the PS3).

Nielsen didn’t post their research methodology though, so who knows if any of this is really accurate.