The number of unique visitors to online gaming sites, excluding gambling sites, has reached nearly 217 million worldwide – a year-on-year growth of 17% – according to a comScore World Metrix study of online gaming.
Online gaming sites – those that provide online or downloadable games – attracted some 28% of the total worldwide online population in May and recorded an average of 9 visits per visitor, comScore said.
Yahoo Games was the largest property in May, despite flat growth from May 2006, attracting 53 million unique visitors; MSN Games was in second place, having grown nearly 16% since May 2006 to reach 40 million unique visitors in May, according to comScore
Both properties provide a mixture of strategy, trivia, arcade, and board games, with puzzle and card games proving the most popular choices for gamers in both cases
The fastest-growing Top 10 gaming property was WildTangent Network, a US company that makes online and downloadable games. It grew 398% from May 2006, attracting 11.5 million unique visitors in May. The site also attracted an average 12.2 visits per visitor – higher than any of the other top 10 gaming properties.
The popularity of individual properties varied significantly among geographical regions, comScore said:
- Yahoo Games dominated the North American and Asia-Pacific continents, registering 18.7 million and 20.9 million unique visitors, respectively.
- In Europe, however, Yahoo Games was the fourth-most popular gaming site with 8.6 million unique visitors.
- MSN Games, the second-most popular gaming site in the world, was more consistent – it was either No. 1 or No. 2 throughout Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia/Pacific and Middle East/Africa.
