The StateStats mashup displays Google query results by popularity in U.S states self describing as:

It then compares this ranking with other ways of ranking states, like average income or population density, using Spearman’s rank correlation. The middle column shows the results of these comparisons, with the strongest correlations listed first.

Google Insight For Search provides the raw search activity from 2004-present, the Google Chart API for the state heatmap and runs under the Google App Engine.

The service points out in its description in bold that one must be careful drawing conclusions from this data. With that in mind I put this post and you should the title of this post tongue-in-cheek in the humor category.

Comparing the console gaming systems: Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3

Couldn’t resist running some comparative queries across the various game consoles in order of sales: Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and finally the Sony PS3.  Why video games? In Google’s 2008 most popular product search queries 4 of 10 involved videogames (#1 Nintendo Wii, #2 Wii Fit, #4 Xbox 360 and #5 Nintendo DS). This is a big win for attention for Nintendo.

Nintendo Wii

The top five states for the Wii: New Jersey, Utah, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Unemployment, violent crime and density are positive weak or stronger.  Negative weak or stronger would be Percent elderly, age, frost, energy consumption and suicide.

Unemployment - I guess it’s understandable that the least expensive game console would be searched for more from states with the highest unemployment rate, although states with high unemployment and videogames showed up for all three consoles.

Percent elderly and age surprises me more as we’ve seen several articles about how popular the Wii has been with all ages, particularly senior citizens due to the often physical games the Wii provides.

Xbox 360

 

The top five states for the Xbox 360: Washington State (Microsoft home), Kentucky, Ohio, Florida and Michigan. Unemployment, obesity, violent crime and density are positive weak or stronger.  Negative weak or stronger would be latitude, age and frost.

Obesity - It’s curious that states with higher obesity rate are searching for the Xbox 360 and yet not the PS3. It makes sense not for the Wii because that console promotes more activity, but what is the difference from a physical standpoint between the Xbox 360 and PS3? I can’t think of any.

Sony Playstation 3

The top five states for the Sony PS3: California, New York, Florida, New Jersey and Texas. Density, violent crime, unemployment, same sex couples, income and illiteracy are positive weak.  Negative weak or stronger would be percent elderly, age, energy consumption, suicide, latitude and frost.

Same sex couples - interesting to note correlation of states with higher same sex are searching more for the PS3. You cannot draw the correlation — although I’m sure somebody will bemusedly — that same sex couples prefer the PS3 over the Wii and Xbox 360.

Violent crime states for all gaming consoles

I’m not in the crowd who believes videogames lead to violent crime (see: Video games don’t cause violence, people do), but it’s interesting to note that besides states with high density and unemployment, violent crime is the only other positive indicator in these search queries for all three gaming consoles. This could be that where there is high density there is also more violent crime or that where there are less dense states like Montana, they don’t do much videogaming.

I’ll leave this to the comment section. This could be a fun one to discuss.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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