According to a new study by Ziff Davis, there are 76.2 million gaming households in the U.S. 19.8 million of those have hardcore, enthusiast gamers in them, who spend $5.6 billon per year on games, hardware and peripherals. That works out to $282 per person per year. (Compare that to $111 for moderate gamers and $32 for casual gamers.)

"We've hit the threshold where people take this event very seriously," said Marty Stratton, director of business development for id Software. "We've grown to the point where this is one of the five events of the year [hardware companies] have to be at. ... If you want to make an impression on the gamers, this is where you do it."