Thirty-seven percent of the U.S. population, ages nine and above, play PC games, according to a recent report.

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The population examined includes teenagers, as well as older gamers, too, according to The NPD Group. People were split into three different segments according to types of games and number of hours played: Heavy core (more than five hours per week), light core (less than five hours per week, and casual (those who primarily play online or social games).Casual gamers compose the largest group, constituting 56 percent of the PC gamer population; light core sits at 24 percent. And although heavy core gamers are the smallest group –– at 20 percent –– the members spent about twice as much money as casual gamers in the last three months on digital and physical games Of those people, 49 percent are women, while 51 percent are men, according to the report. PC gamers also tend to be older than console gamers, with an average age of 38 years. They're also fairly affluent, with an average household income of $69k. However, PC gamers are far less likely to pay full price for a game, with about half of them accustomed to waiting for digital sales, The NPD Group said.Another recent study found that PC hardware sales are much higher than those of consoles –– the PC gaming market is worth $21.5 billion USD , about twice as much as the console market. This may account for the fact that roughly 92 percent of all PC game sales are digital , as DFC Intelligence found, a fraction that is only expected to rise in the coming years. IGN published an article about this trend , citing the long life cycle of consoles and the growing accessibility of PC gaming as the chief factors affecting the shift in recent years.

Mike Mahardy is a freelance journalist writing for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter at @mmahardy