According to a new report from market research firm The NPD Group, gaming community is apparently suffering from shrinkage of late, with the number of video-game players in the US having witnessed a plunge since 2011.

Going by the NPD report, the shrinking of the total number of gamers in the US is evident from the statistics which reveal that, in comparison to the last year figures, there has been a 5 percent drop – to nearly 211.5 million - in the number of people who currently play video games.

However, noting alongside that there has been a year-on-year increase in the number of people playing mobile and digital games, the NPD Group said that – on the basis of the data for 2012 thus far – the full-year retail sales for the video-game industry will probably touch $14.5 billion, as against the last year figures of $17 billion.

The NPD statistics showed that while the number of mobile gamers this year has increased by 9 percent to 22 percent – making them the biggest segment of the gaming community – and digital gamers went up by 4 percent to 16 percent, there was a notable decline in the other segments which include core gamers, family and kid gamers, casual PC gamers, and obsessive PC gamers.

Commenting on the figures, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said that the “slight decline in the core gamer segment” is essentially an upshot of the “long lifecycles of the current consoles and the increasing installed base of smartphones and tablets.”