Online gaming continues strong growth in US

RESTON, USA: comScore Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview of the online gaming category among US Internet users, which showed a significant increase in the size of its audience during the past year as consumers increasingly opt for cheaper entertainment alternatives, driven in part by the reality of economic challenges.

The category attracted 87 million US visitors in May 2009, up 22 percent versus year ago.

Yahoo! Games ranked #1 in the category with 19.4 million visitors, representing a 6-percent increase over the past year, followed by EA Online with 18 million visitors (up 34 percent), Nickelodeon Casual Games with 14.8 million visitors, and WildTangent Network with 13.8 million (up 16 percent).

GSN Games Networks achieved particularly strong gains in the past year, growing 563 percent to 6 million visitors, due primarily to the additions of entities such as WorldWinner.com and CrazyMonkeyGames.com."Online gaming continues to be one of the top gaining categories over the past year growing at ten times the rate of the total US Internet population and reaching nearly one out of every two Internet users," said Edward Hunter, comScore director of gaming solutions.

"And the growth in the category is occurring not only at the top gaming destination sites, but also through viral distribution platforms, including widgets and applications. In fact, some online gaming companies that distributed their games across sites are reaching as many people as the top online gaming sites."

Distribution platforms increase in significance
Distributed content, as measured by comScore Extended Web Metrix, represents a growing trend in the online gaming space. Distributed content platforms, including widgets and applications, can often reach audiences of a size comparable to online gaming destination sites.

MochiMedia, for example, reached a combined audience of 16.9 million in May, greater than all but two sites in the online gaming category. Games2Win reached 1.8 million people, which compares favorably with the top 20 sites in the category, while Tetris Online reached 165,000 people.

*Measurement of extended web entities requires participation from publishers to tag distributed content for measurement purposes. The sites listed do not represent an exhaustive list of online gaming publishers with distributed content.

"The power and reach of viral content distribution is well captured by comScore Extended Web Metrix," said Alok Kejriwal, CEO and Co-Founder, Games2win.

"With these latest consumer traffic numbers, we can now effectively present and strategically leverage our accelerating audience reach, and share data with our advertisers, marketers and partners that represents a holistic view of who is playing our games and from where."

US households spend over $1,200 annually on CE

USA: The average US household spent $1,229 on consumer electronics (CE) products in the past 12 months, $176 less than in the prior year, according to a new study released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

According to the 11th Annual Household CE Ownership and Market Potential Study, video products are expanding already high levels of ownership.

On an average, men continue to spend more on consumer electronics than women, spending $902 annually compared to women, who spent $558. Young adults spent more than any other age group.

Consumers ages 18-24 spent $1,056 last year on CE devices, an increase of nearly $100 from the prior year. The average household reports owning 23 CE products, down from 24 products last year. However, the number of discrete (separate) CE products per household increased from 13 to 15.

"As products such as smartphones and GPS units incorporate a greater number of features and consumers replace older CE devices with newer ones, it’s not surprising to see the average number of products owned fluctuate," said Ben Arnold, CEA’s senior research analyst. "While consumers report spending less on CE, ownership of nearly all products measured in this study are higher compared to last year showing that consumers continue to buy CE products but are purchasing them at lower price points."

The study also shows an increase in video product ownership. Televisions are the most owned CE device in the US, with 99 percent of households owning a TV. Fifty-two percent of households own at least one HDTV, an increase of 11 percent from last year and double the penetration rate from 2007.

Ownership of plasma and LCD screens as well as sets over 40-inches are also on the rise. DVD players (93 percent penetration rate) and cell phones (90 percent penetration rate) are the next most commonly owned CE devices.

"As the June 12 digital television transition date nears, the average price for HDTVs continues to fall and HDTV programming increases, consumers are buying their first, second or third high-definition televisions," said Arnold. "With fewer Americans traveling and going out for entertainment, they are, in turn, choosing to stay home, save money and watch high-definition content in the comfort of their own living room."

The 11th Annual Household CE Ownership and Market Potential Study (May 2009) was conducted between January 29 and February 2, 2009. It was designed and formulated by CEA Market Research, the most comprehensive source of sales data, forecasts, consumer research and historical trends for the consumer electronics industry.

The complete study is available free to CEA member companies. Non-members may purchase the study for $999 at myCEA.CE.org.