The NPD Group has sent word that the Gamer Segmentation 2009 report has found more females are gaming this year, in several categories. Females jumped from 23% in 2008 to 28% in 2009 in the Console Gamer category, and rose four percentage points each in Heavy Portable and Extreme Gamers. Other categories of segmentation in the study include Secondary, Online PC, Avid PC, and Offline PC. The NPD Group attributes the rise of female console players primarily to the Wii. The gaming industry seems to have caught onto this in a big way, focusing large sections of this year's E3 press conferences on so-called "girl games," which is quickly turning into a lucrative market.

Other data mined shows the dedicated habits of the core audience. This "Extreme" segment plays more than any other group (39 hours, versus 29 hours from Avid PC Gamers), and that number is actually down from last year. They also buy four times the games of other segments despite having the lowest income. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm doesn't impact the game industry too much, since they only make up 4% of the total game-purchasing market.

If we take those two pieces of data together, it points in the same direction many have noticed for the industry. The wider net of female gamers and Wii adoption is simply more profitable right now than the core fan base due to its relative size. On the bright side, the data does suggest that more females are making the transition to becoming part of that core audience, so we're unlikely to see our beloved AAA titles go anywhere.