Do the majority of gamers even play on hard difficulty levels?

Almost always on easy.

I like to get shit out of the way and have a good time. I'm not an achievement whore either.

I always play on the highest possible difficulty setting. If the game gets too tough, I just lower the Difficulty, and once I have beaten it I come back later on the higher difficulty.

The only time I play past normal is if I really love the game or there is a New Game+ that carries over to higher difficulties.

Most game's harder difficulties are bullshit. I only bother with harder difficulties if its a game that I like enough that I'm wiling to deal with its particular brand of bullshit (Batman, Darksiders), or if it allows for different experiences (Bayonetta) or new content (Kingdom Hearts, Alan Wake).

Genre dependent. Rhythm and fighting games on expert, driving sims on super duper easy. Mostly everything else on medium. Ditto on kicking it up to hard for new game plus.

Been playing on normal or lower lately, just so I can finish the game. But it will depend on the type of game.

Normal is good enough for me. I'll only replay it at more difficult levels if I really like the game. Like crysis 2 or mass effect 2, otherwise I don't have time for it or want to go through the grind of dying non stop.

medium for me, sometimes easy if I can't be bothered.  rarely hard unless I adore the game enough to get brilliant at it.

I find it hard enough to get through a game on normal, not in terms of difficulty.. I mean I find it hard to complete games due to lack of attention. So I figure if I played on a hard difficulty I'd get an even smaller portion of the way through games. That being said stuff like the Witcher 2 seems very challanging on normal, which I don't mind.

It depends on the game. I'm better at some genres than others. Just how hard or normal they mean also affects my choice. Usually I end up playing on the harder difficulties.

Normal, mostly.

Easy if I just want the story. Or I really dislike how it handles and could not be bothered to compensate.

Hard if I trust the dev or a second playthrough. Uncharted and Vanquish are the only two I can think of playing Hard right out of the box. Oh and Mafia 2, but that was just because it was 100 Goddamn achievement points.

I hate playing first person shooters on Hard, because I never feel like I can control the defensive side of things. In a third person shooter, I can see where my body is and measure the angles. In a FPS, it just comes down to a twitch game in every encounter.

The only times I play games on hard difficulties is when I think I can actually go through it and have fun or because I feel I've gotten pretty good at the game and want to challenge myself. I really enjoy playing on hard on games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta and Vanquish because I find those games very satisfying to try and master.

I only play hard in Golf games, otherwise, it's too easy for me.

I do hard in plenty of games, mostly because hard often seems to be the level of challenge aimed at a frequent game player. If that level is considered normal, then it's iffy. If it takes away from my enjoyment I don't play it on a super hard difficulty.

I almost never play on hard, sometimes on easy and mostly on normal. Only exception for hard are games with multiple playthrough, where you keep your leveled up weapons on NewGame+ (i.e. Resident Evil 5), I start those normal and then switch to hard on a second playthrough to keep things interesting. I find with by far most games these days difficulty really doesn't matter much to begin with, as you can almost always crouch behind cover and refill your health, thus higher difficulty simply ends up being more sitting behind cover, more random death and more retries, all the stuff that is not fun, but nothing that makes the game actually more complicated or interesting to play. There are very few games left where death really is the players fault and not just auto-refill health coming a second to late or dieing because you got stuck in some geometry.

Most games I play through on hard, although some games I will play normal and then go back and up the difficulty.

Depends on the game and how hard each difficulty level is. No game has a universal idea of what defines "hard", just like there's no universal definition of "spicy".
 
I never play Hard the first time around, though. I like getting a general idea of the game and how good I am at it first.

It it is very rare for me to play a game on hard and be having fun, mostly because I don't like playing games in a very specific very focused manner.  You can't goof around and be stupid on hard, most games just slap you in the face if you do.

I would usually play the game on normal and then replay it again later on hard. As of late I have just been going straight to Hard though.  Having no challenge really really bores me, with games like Dead Space 1/2 , Vanquish, Gears of War, and Halo, I just don't find the normal difficulty fun at all. ( For halo specifically Legendary is the only setting as far as I am concerned.)

I usually do a notch above normal on my first playthrough or the hardest difficulty if I'm really confident. I always play on the hardest difficulty the second time around for sure. A game is way more satisfying when you are challenged to a reasonable degree.

Hard,Hardest,extreme,Insane or whatever else they call it nowadays. Modern games are way to easy, i like the abuse of the older generations. I like being  brought down to my knees, then kicked in the groin for good measure.

no, i don't. i hate playing games on hard. it frustrates me dieing all the time from the guys having perfect aim or overpowered.

Usually I play character action games (GOW, DMC, etc) and FPS on Hard and Normal for everything else. It really depends on the game though since one game's Hard setting is not really comparable to another.

Always play on hard unless it gets ridiculously stupid. I had to turn down Duke becasue it was just frustrating. Im finding out however a lot of games are forcing you to play through on an easier difficulty to pad your stats for a second play through which will still be difficult. This is why normal mode IMO has actually become the new easy mode. It takes away any tension, fear, or sense of accomplishment. As a recent example play Homefront on Normal and then switch to Hard. They are 2 entirely different games.

Never, when games become really hard they become not fun, I like a challenge, but not a super hard one. The only game I've done on hard was MGS2 and I did that on extreme.

@CodyMetro said:

@NoelVeiga said:

I play on hard when there's a trophy or achievement for it, which is at times a bad call, as it can make some games downright unpleasant (looking at you here, Infamous). If there's no achievement, clever people sat down and decided what difficulty should be the standard, so I go for that.  Then again, I don't play for competition or bragging rights (casual achievement hunting notwithstanding), I play for the experience, so I don't care about taxing my gaming skills in the slightest. People with more free time and less self esteem may want to do things differently, I guess.

Totally agree. I don't really understand the need and what one feels out of being completely great at a game and getting every achievement. Different strokes for different folks I guess

I don't know about you, but I bragged after I finished Halo: Reach on Legendary by myself. I bragged to everyone I knew.  I think part of it is because a hard game can make you feel accomplished if done correctly. A game like Reach in particular that requires dexterity and skill along with human intuition on Legendary can turn a standard encounter into something special. Enemies aren't just bullet sponges, they react and adapt to what you do and find holes in your battle strategy to exploit. There's something to conquering a difficult foe and coming through the other side relatively unscathed.  That said, I play Bioware RPGs on Normal or Easy, because I'm in those for the story. I can appreciate both sides to this discussion, but I feel that it is disingenuous to say that people with "a lot of time on their hands" are the only ones who enjoy the harder difficulties.

I always play one level above normal on my first playthrough.  

Definitely just depends on the game.. There's a few games I enjoy playing a lot and playing on the harder difficulties are actually more enjoyable. The Halo, Uncharted and inFamous games spring straight to mind, all of which are really well balanced.

Depends on how good I feel the developers are at making it hard and what type of game it is. For example strategy games I am terrible at...so those always go to easy for me. FPS' I have a knack for so those I like to amp up, but if the developer only makes it frustrating (MW2) then I'll go down a notch.

It all depends on the game. If it is Halo I start at Heroic and then play legendary because it is a fun challenge. Mass Effect games I started out on normal and then insane for the achievement. I'm not against playing on easy in certain games as well, like fallout which I play for the open world exploration and such rather than combat so I rather have the combat be a cake walk so it is over as fast as possible.

In other words it all depends on what sort of game it is. Same games are more fun the harder they are while some games I just want to play through the story and such as quickly as possible.

I used to play on normal on all games, but now I try to challenge myself. Most action-adventure and shooter games I play on hard now and I've started to play RPG on harder difficulties as well. It's incredibly satisfying when you beat a game on a harder difficulty.

usually play normal

sometimes the nine tails isnt enough and i punish myself with higher difficulties

I always play normal. I'm not opposed to challenge, but the fact is that most games consider harder difficulty to be cheats for the AI against the player like you doing reduced damage and them doing more. That's not making a more challenging game, that's cheating.

99% of the time i play the game on hard right out the box.

I usually play normal unless that is not hard enough.  Hard or anything higher I do for 2nd-3rd runs to keep things fresh.  I beat NG black on MNM so not too much scares me off.  Its more about the game thou, if I dont enjoy it, im not going to waste time on hard/insane modes. i guess I did forget to try hard on Infamous 2.  Alternate run for good karma kinda made me forget. 

I used to play on Normal most of the time, but lately I just go with Hard if not even something higher (I chose Realistic on Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 the first time I've played it, I don't know why I did that). But I still rather test the waters before going straight with Hard. More often than not.

Play on hard depending on  the game. Some games i beat on normal, just to see how are they, and after that hard or what ever is above it.

@Lrrr said:

The second thing I do after inverting my stick.

HAHA

I usually do a normal run first then I go for the hardest difficulty available.

I used to by default, but I am now a "normal/default" player, because a) it's usually the most polished and balanced mode and b) I don't have that much time anymore. 
  
I just wish they would stop turning "normal" into the new "easy" (e. g. Torchlight).

If it's a FPS, I always play on hard. Normal difficulty for the rest.

I usually play first time round medium diff, then second time around i'll play it on hard.

Normal usually, unless I feel that a normal difficulty is actually easy, then I'll bump it up a notch. I do like games that don't have a setting though for the most part. To me a game should be experienced as intended, and not "dumbed down" or cheapened by a setting.

A lot of my friends do it on hard for the achievements. I couldn't care less, I find that it takes the fun out of the game if I need to try too hard.

Nah. If there is a huge achievement awarded for grinding through a game on its hardest difficulty, then I consider it. Or if I'm just finding little enjoyment beating the AI on the default difficulty (like Mortal Kombat, where I've taken to playing on Expert exclusively). But for most games, normal is the way to go. Some games I'll even knock down to Easy if I really don't give a shit.

I do hard difficulty more often than not.

If there's 4 difficulty options, I go with the 3rd (second hardest). 
 
If there's 3, I go with the hardest. 
 
Unless the game is something I'm iffy about and don't want to spend a long time with it.

only if the achievment is worth it