In March 2009, DFC Intelligence (DFCI) released two surveys of high-end PC gamers from 1.2 million GameShadow users.  One survey was on MMO players and the other was FPS players.  The surveys give insight into the hardware systems and other software used by PC game consumers, including:

  • 236,080 consumers had at least one FPS title installed
  • 52,800 unique users that had at least one MMOG title installed
  • The user base skewed heavily male, over 96% in the case of MMOGs and 97% for FPS titles
  • 26% of FPS players are under 25
  • 25% of FPS players are over 45
  • 54% of Counter-Strike players are under 25

Interesting data on multiple MMO users as well:

  • 35% of City of Heroes users also had World of Warcraft installed
  • 27% had Guild Wars installed

Here’s a chart of the top installed titles:

City of Heroes Top Installed Titles

Rank

Application Name

Users

Percentage

City of Heroes

3,322

100.0%

1

City of Villains

2,639

79.4%

2

World of Warcraft

1,172

35.3%

3

Guild Wars

899

27.1%

4

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

724

21.8%

5

Battlefield 2

611

18.4%

6

Hitman: Blood Money

603

18.2%

7

Half Life 2

563

16.9%

8

World of Warcraft – Burning Crusade

541

16.3%

9

CounterStrike: Source

473

14.2%

10

The Sims 2

466

14.0%

Total installed titles for users of listed title by number installed 2/3/2009

GameShadow also monitored the actual hardware installed on the players’ PCs, so below is info on the systems:

Top Graphics Chipset for FPS Users

Graphics Chipset

Users

Percentage

GeForce 8600 GT

3,423

5.1%

GeForce 8800 GT

3,298

4.9%

GeForce 8800 GTS

2,756

4.1%

GeForce 8500 GT

2,356

3.5%

GeForce 8800 GTX

2,136

3.2%

GeForce 7600 GS

1,672

2.5%

GeForce 9600 GT

1,399

2.1%

GeForce 7600 GT

1,289

1.9%

GeForce 8600 GTS

1,254

1.9%

GeForce FX 5200

1,001

1.5%

DFC Intelligence has deeper data from the survey if you’re interested. research products and custom research services go to: http://www.dfcint.com/