In a recently conducted study by the NDP Group, it has been discovered that 62% of gamers in North America play their games online. A good 42% of those gamers are women, while majority of the 11,600 surveyed were found to be between the ages of 25-44 years old.

Gamers on the Xbox 360 accounted for the huge rise in online gaming with the PlayStation 2 on second, although the PlayStation 3 is the second most used platform for online play.

That, however, was ironically offset by the many Nintendo Wii gamers who were found to be the "most inclined" to become online gamers, but didn't have the means to do so.

In contrast, the PC and Mac audiences in the North American side only accounted for the top three platforms played online, despite their already-established online play infrastructure and technology. It is yet unclear if these results also reflect the MMO gaming platforms.

In other findings, it was discovered that the most popular genres played in the U.S. were casual games. Raking in 44% of the gamer surveyed, it even offset family-oriented (25%) and MMOs (19%). 41% of those surveyed were classified under "Avid PC Gamers," making it the largest segment of online gamers surveyed.