The PlayStation 4 may be the leading game console this generation, with the most number of games available on it too (thanks to leading third party and first party developer support), but it doesn’t seem as though PS4 owners are as necessarily engaged with their console as Wii U and Xbox One owners are with theirs. A new study by consumer research firm Digital Web Index indicates that Xbox One and Wii U owners on average spend far more time playing games than PS4 owners do.
The study asked 17,990 console users how long they spend console gaming each day, and Xbox One owners came out on top, spending 2 hours and 27 minutes on average playing games on their console. Wii U owners trailed by just a minute, with an average daily play time of 2 hours and 26 minutes. PS4 owners came in last with a play time of 2 hours and 15 minutes, which was admittedly still higher than the average play time for PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii.
This data is particularly interesting, given that one of the ostensible reasons for the PS4’s appeal was that it was a no nonsense games console aimed at the core gaming market. At the same time, it is to be remembered that the PS4’s higher install base probably led to a larger sample size for this study, which means that its average would naturally be more diluted. It’s the kind of phenomenon we observe with similar metrics for Nintendo 3DS and PS Vita too, for example. In that case, the PS4’s slightly lower average playing time may be more of an artifact of statistical sampling than anything else.
