The PS3, 360 and Wii represent the immediate future of video gaming, however the dear old Playstation 2 was the most played console Stateside in 2008, so says a new report from Nielsen.

Yup, USA gamers spent more time plonked in front of Sony’s near decade-old dodderer last year than any of the new-fangled next-gen alternatives. 31.7% of that mighty nation’s total game time, we‘re told, and that’s miles ahead of the competition too - the Xbox 360 accounted for 17.2% of playtime and the Wii, which you might have thought would win this particular race, a modest 16.2%.

But the mad stats don’t end there. According to Nielsen the last-gen Xbox got more use than the PS3, racking up 9.7% of total game time compared to a piffling 7.3% for the latter. Hilarious!

Meanwhile the Nielsen report identifies World of Warcraft as the most-played PC title of ’08, averaging 671 minutes per user per week. If that seems a little light compared to your own usage Nielsen stat-mongers have calculated that nearly 1% of all PC gamers are engaged in the game at any given moment. Well, gosh…