Gaming now edges music and movies in online popularity, says Ofcom

According to Ofcom’s recent Communications Market Report 2010, online gaming has now become marginally more popular than downloading music or films.

Very marginally, mind you. The statistics from the organisation’s research showed that 39% of those surveyed played games online, which was up from 38% last year. 38% professed to downloading songs and films, which was down from 39% last year.

More tellingly, the report also showed that games consoles are establishing themselves more firmly as a viewing platform when it comes to delivering video.

Ofcom found that nearly 10% of respondents with a console used it to watch programmes on the iPlayer. The BBC’s own usage statistics showed Wii and PS3 owners jointly accounted for 10% of all iPlayer programmes requested in February. The majority, 60% of those requests, were from Sony’s console.

5% of folks are watching live audio-visual media using their console, such as Xbox owners who can view live premium channels on Sky Player.

Ofcom also reckons that the average Brit spends almost half the waking day, just over seven hours, engrossed in digital entertainment, whether that’s gaming, surfing, watching TV or texting on their mobiles.