About 26.5 million US consumers visited lotto and sweepstakes sites in October 2011, representing 23.5% month-over-month growth from roughly 21.4 million US consumers in September, making the prize-based category the fastest growing by percentage change, according to [download page] comScore Media Metrix data. The annual McDonald’s Monopoly game, found at PlayAtMcD.com, drove much of the Lotto/Sweepstakes category growth, ranking first in the category with 5.8 million visitors, up 672% from September. The game also earned the McDonald’s web property the #1 rank on the top-gaining web properties list, up 120% overall to 9.1 million visitors. Following McDonald’s in the category were EPrize.net, which drew 3.2 million visitors (up 3%) and SwagBucks.com, which drew 2.4 million (up 8%). A large Powerball jackpot prompted 1.5 million visitors to PowerBall.com, representing growth of 20%.
According to comScore data, total US internet audience increased about 1% month-over-month, from 218.5 million to 221.1 million.
October Holidays Drive Visitors to Flowers, Gifts, and E-Cards
Almost 30 million visitors browsed flowers, gifts, and greetings sites in October, representing 23.4% growth month-over-month, marginally behind Lotto/Sweepstakes as the second-fastest growing category. PartyCity.com took the top ranking within the Flowers/Gifts/Greetings sites category with 8.8 million visitors, up 111%, also earning the #2 rank in the top-gaining properties list. AmericanGreetings Property came second in the category with 4.9 million visitors (up 11%), followed by Gifts.com with 4 million (up 3%), Hallmark.com with 1.4 million, and 1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. with 1.2 million (up 14%).
E-card sites also fared well, growing 17% to 23.1 million visitors, led by Evite.com with 9.6 million visitors (up 8%). MyFunCards.com ranked second with 2.7 million visitors (up 12%), followed by AG Interactive with 2.5 million (up 13%).
Google Increases Lead
Google sites ranked as the #1 property once again in October with 186.7 million visitors, up over 1% from 184.6 million in September. Yahoo (173.8 million) and Microsoft (173.2 million) both lost about 2% of their visitors month-on-month while remaining in a tight battle for the second spot. Meanwhile, Facebook edged up about 2% to 166 million visitors, while Apple dropped over 7 million visitors, falling from the #12 spot to the #15 ranking.
NFL Internet Group, which appeared in the top 50 ranking for the first time last month at #40, dropped 1.5 million viewers, falling to the #49 spot in October.
Top Ad Focus Rankings Stay Steady
Google Ad Network once again led the October Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 92.8% of Americans online, unchanged from its leading reach in September (see link above), followed again by Yahoo Network Plus, which edged up slightly from 86.1% reach to 86.6% reach, and AOL Advertising, which also grew marginally from 84.8% to 85.0% reach. AT&T AdWorks (83.2%) held down the #4 spot, while ValueClick Networks (81.4%) rounded out the top 5.
