Report: The average PC holds 880 MP3 files

Reston (VA) - Approximately three gigabytes of storage is taken up with MP3 files on the average PC in the US, according to a new report from Comscore.

This makes MP3 the most common file type on American PCs, says Comscore, followed distantly by Microsoft Word. The report said the average PC had around 197 Word files, as well as 100 PDF files, 77 Microsoft Excel files, and 36 Windows Media files.

To house all those files, Comscore showed that 39% of household computers had hard drives of 70 GB or more. The research firm also broke down Internet traffic based on what kind of files were on a user’s PC. For example, 39.4% of people who frequented gaming sites were defined as "heavy MP3" users, while those with a lot of Word files were more likely to visit business and finance sites.

The results are part of Comscore’s new "Tech Matrix" analysis service, which the company hopes will bring valuable information to advertisers and industry watchers, as a more defined scope than previous reports that just showed the top Internet among typical age/race/income demographics.