Share of market analysis

Slicing and dicing the Universe chart on a total registered account basis throws out some interesting datapoints. The charts below, by age segment show the heavy hitters in the virtual worlds space as well as the challenges facing start-ups in the space.

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With 40m total accounts in Q1 2009, Poptropica accounts for almost 60% of the total accounts in the five to 10 year old segment. Barbie Girls comes in second with a quarter of the total market share.

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Demonstrating the challenges facing newer companies in the space, the sum total of all worlds with under 1m accounts or with undisclosed figures (which means they’re more than likely small) accounts for just 4%.

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Moving onto the 10 to 15 age group we see a slightly more proportional split of market share.

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Habbo of course is the big one here, representing almost 50% of total accounts (124m total). But there’s another major players going after these tweens and teens such as Neopets (19%), Stardoll and WeeWorld both with 9.9% and Club Penguin with an estimated 8.3%.

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You gotta be a player if you’re going after this market because the sum total of all sub 1m virtual worlds is just 1%, compared to 4% for the younger group.

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Lastly the 15 to 25 year olds and yes you’ve guessed it, another dominant world – IMVU with an almost 42% total share.

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However, there’s a little more competition in this segment with worlds such as Gaia (20.7%) and six other worlds with more than a 2% overall share.