Seattle might be known for coffee, grunge rock music and airplanes.  But in a recent study done by Sperling’s BestPlaces (and Microsoft) crowned Seattle as the title of top video gaming city in the United States, edging out New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. 

Wonder if the number of Microsoft employees and Nintendo America employees (both in Redmond, Washington) helped up the numbers...  By the way, even though we helped pay for the survey, we didn't really know Seattle would end up number one...  It just kind of makes sense.  

I know in my house, I have an Xbox 360, two original Xboxes, a Nintendo 64, a Super NES, five (count 'em) GameBoy Advances, and one Gameboy DS.  I spend more on videogames than just about any other kind of entertainment (DVDs, CDs, PPV, etc.). 

So Chris, where's Cleveland?  And Andy, I see SF is in a pathetic 14th place!  C'mon! 

More from the press release:

“The large amount of games played on Xbox Live and the high number of video games owned put Seattle at the top of list, but clearly the survey confirms that games are sweeping the U.S.,” said Bert Sperling, founder of Sperling’s BestPlaces.

Sperling commissioned the survey based on the number of video game systems owned per household — Xbox 360™, Xbox®, Window-based PCs, PlayStation 2 and GameCube — number of games purchased, number of game rentals, and frequency of online gameplay via Xbox Live or Windows games, among other factors.

The top 15 U.S. gaming cities are as follows:

  1. Seattle
  2. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
  3. Atlanta
  4. Detroit
  5. Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.
  6. Washington, D.C.
  7. St. Louis
  8. Boston
  9.  San Diego
  10. Philadelphia
  11. Chicago
  12. Dallas
  13. Houston
  14. San Francisco
  15. New York

The video game industry is growing in popularity among all age groups and both genders. The average age of a gamer is 30, and 19 percent of gamers are older than 50. Men currently dominate the industry; however, the gap is closing, with approximately 55 percent of players being male and approximately 43 percent female.