Neilson Company (the guys who do the TV ratings) has released a report that shows that people played their Xbox more than their PlayStation 3.

Yes, the Xbox. Not the 360. The black one.

Using data compiled from January to October 2008, Neilson’s report states that the most popular console of 2008 was the PlayStation 2 with 31.7% of all minutes logged on video game consoles. Considering the PS2 will never, ever die, that shouldn’t shock you. The Xbox 360 was a distant second with 17.2% share, while the Nintendo Wii spotted third with 13.4%.

Here’s where it gets interesting, though. The Xbox — the big, black box of doom — was #4 with a 9.7% share while the PlayStation 3 only had a 7.3% share. What happened to 2008 being the year of the PlayStation 3, eh?

Here’s Neilson’s full list:

• PlayStation 2 31.7%
• Xbox 360 17.2%
• Wii 13.4
• Xbox 9.7
• PlayStation 3 7.3
• GameCube 4.6
• “Other” 16.2

“Other” denotes any other video game console not listed. If I were a betting man, I’d say that the majority of that 16.2% is the SEGA Dreamcast.

Neilson also released info on what they found to be the most popular PC game of 2008. To nobody’s surprise, the game played the most was World of Warcraft, with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Halo coming in second and third. In case you were curious, more people played RuneScape than Diablo II in the past year, for which we should all be ashamed.

via Neilson (Note: PDF format)

Popularity: unranked [?]