Owners of video game consoles are spending more time using their systems, but not to play games – to stream video content. The availability of increased video streaming content such as Netflix, Hulu, ESPN (News - Alert), Major League Baseball Network, and video on demand (VOD) has led to more users watching verses playing on their Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.

Nielsen, the purveyor of all things statistical and demographic, recently released a new report saying that analyst have determined since the last year, video streaming now accounts for 33 percent of the time spent on the Wii, 15 percent of the time spent on the Playstation 3, and 14 percent of the time spend on the Xbox 360. All three of those percentages increased significantly from the previous year.

Lance Whitney, blogger for CNET and TMCnet columnist, said as a whole game consoles usage has been increasing. “Looking at metered data, Nielsen saw a 7 percent rise in user time during the second half of 2011 compared with the first half,” said Whitney.

Whitney said this increase in users spending time with their consoles occur for all different reasons. “But each console still differs in the type of activity that occupies users. Xbox 360 owners spend 34 percent of their time in online gaming, Playstation 3 users spend 22 percent watching DVDs and Blue-Ray discs, and Wii owners eat up around 55 percent of their time playing games offline,” said Whitney.

Now though, as video streaming becomes the defining “non-gaming” activity for consoles, only 4-5 percent of console time is spent messing around with other features.

Mike Luttrell, writer for TGDaily, said according to Nielsen, consoles additional features don’t seem as important to the users anymore, using the Playstation 3 as an example. “The PS3 is the console that is least used for actually playing video games. Only 54 percent of the PS3 owners’ time is spent playing video games, while 20 percent of it is spent watching streaming or downloaded video,” said Luttrell.

Luttrell said this proves that game consoles have become more of a media hub for users rather than just a gaming device. “In other words, there are definite numbers to prove that game consoles are becoming complete entertainment machines and not just nerdy game devices anymore. This may be the biggest trend of the year and will no doubt only continue to grow in 2012,” Luttrell said.