PlayStation 2 most played console in America in 2008

And PS3 beaten by original Xbox

5 January 2009 19:47 GMT / By Verity Burns

The Nielsen Company has found that American gamers played Sony's PlayStation 2 console more than any other last year.

While the company is probably best known for tracking television viewing figures, it also looks into how people spend their time elsewhere, including tracking console usage.

Nielsen found that between January and October 2008, PS2 clocked up the most usage minutes, accounting for 31.2% of the total.

Xbox 360 came in a distant second at 17.2%, followed by Wii at 13.4%.

Probably most surprising was that instead of the PS3 in fourth place, the original Xbox chipped in with 9.7% of minutes measured, with PS3 then in fifth with 7.3% and GameCube at 4.6%.

The remaining 16.2% was attributed to "other", which we're guessing could cover handhelds like the DS, PSP, and PC gamers.

Do you still play your PS2?

Full tags

Gaming, PS2, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PS3, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Games industry, Activision