Nielsen: 360 has most 'active users' in 2009, Wii has fewest

We imagine those six multicolored lines you see above are going to cause quite a stir among the various fanboy contingencies -- they represent the percentage of "active users" on different consoles in the first half of 2009, according to survey data compiled by Nielsen. As you can see, the Xbox 360 dominated the charts, while the ubiquitously successful Wii came in dead last by a huge margin, ranking below the PS2, original Xbox and GameCube.

Our initial reaction to this data was that Nielsen is high on pot, but we can kinda understand what caused the Wii's disappointing placement on the list -- the chart is tracking the percent of console owners who use their gaming hardware on a regular basis. Everyone and their dog owns a Wii by this point, but very few actually play them consistently, according to Nielsen's findings. Meanwhile, there's only a handful of GameCubes out there that haven't been converted into lunchboxes, and their owners apparently use them a bit more frequently.

If you're looking for a more straightforward breakdown of console usage, Nielsen also figured the overall usage totals for each console. That chart's posted after the jump. (You'll find it slightly above the deluge of inflammatory comments.)

[Via IndustryGamers]