MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Four out of ten internet users globally now play online games
That’s according to a new report by Dutch browser gaming outfit Spil based on data from the company’s own pool of 130 million monthly active users and ComScore.
The 2010 State of Gaming Report shows that of the 1.3 billion people on the internet today, 510 million of them are playing online games.
Spil also claims that casual gaming through portals such as its own websites is on the rise. According to the findings two times as many individuals worldwide played online casual games on Spil’s websites in 2010 than bought a console in the same year.
“2010 was a record-breaking year in many respects,” said Oscar Diele, chief marketing officer at Spil. “But what’s most interesting are the trends we’re seeing in the casual gaming space: who is playing, what they’re playing, and how frequently they’re playing.
“This year we’ve really seen casual gaming come of age, especially at Spil Games. We’ve pioneered the introduction of HTML5 as the technology of choice for mobile gaming, and we expect phenomenal growth in this sector in 2011. To think that five people a second are opening one of our games is, frankly, astonishing. It’s great to know that the entertainment we provide is reaching so many.”
Those currently considering the details of the next casual game they develop may also be interested to see Spil’s findings in relation to the most popular genres and features.
According to the report:
• The most popular game categories with Europeans are racing and skill, whereas Americans love to get daily advice: daily quizzes are by far the most popular games in the States.
• Women like to take time for themselves, with puzzles and time-management games dominating their playing behaviour, and they like games that save their progress for the next session of play.
• Competition, achievement, control, and showing off dominate the playing behaviour of teen boys. They also want to be able to communicate with each other when playing games online.
• Daily quizzes that offer advice on style and clothing dominate girls’ playing behaviour.
• Girls love to talk: users left 10 million comments on all GirlsGoGames sites. Italian girls leave the most comments, followed by Dutch, Spanish-speaking, Russian, and American girls, in that order.
