Here’s a Slideshare presentation containing our Q4 2009 Universe and Radar analysis.
Following on from our Universe chart posts for Q4 2009, we’re delighted to release the Radar charts. These charts show, be genre, virtual worlds either live or in development. The chart below shows three segments, Toys/real world games, fantasy/questing and mirror worlds.
For the Toys and real world games segment, we’re expecting a lot of movement. Mattel has lead this segment with Barbie Girls and we’re now seeing Hasbro/EA move into the market with the Littlest Pet Shop Online (LPOS) and Ubisoft with Imagine, launching shortly (Shameless plug alert – both are KZero consulting clients). And let’s not forget about Lego Universe. Continue reading →
Throughout 2009 and certainly for the majority of 2008, almost all the focus in the KT&T virtual worlds space was in casual gaming and socialising.
Now, we’re seeing a different trend, with worlds catering towards education and development being the hotspot in terms of upcoming worlds.
The chart below shows Education/Development, Fashion/Lifestyle and Music.
You can order the full report analysing growth in the virtual worlds sector here. Our report, Virtual Worlds 2010+ details the major drivers for growth in these categories. Continue reading →
Our last post (assessing Kids and Tweens) showed the five to 10 year old segment and 10 to 15’s grew 17.8% and 6,8% respectively from Q3 to Q4 2009. Here, we cover the older sectors and first up virtual worlds with an average age user from 15 to 25. Here’s the Universe chart.
IMVU continues to dominate this age range, growing to 46m registered accounts in Q4. One to watch in this range is French VW Dofus, with 30m registered accounts, mainly in France. Of note, IMVU now publishes active users (concurrency) live on their site (with over 100k online at time of writing this post). Continue reading →
As published in our last post, the overall market of total registered users in the virtual worlds sector reached 800m in Q4 2009. Here, we delve into the younger segmented of this market, Kids and Tweens.
Virtual worlds with an average age user between five and ten reached a total of 179m in Q4, up 17.8% from 152m. The chart below contains the Universe segment for this age range.
Commentary on this age range in terms of drivers for growth and upcoming worlds is explained in this post based on the Radar. The full report on Q4 growth containing both the Universe and Radar charts can be requested here.
Here’s the segment for the ten to 15 year old group. This segment (the largest in overall size) grew 6.8% quarter on quarter from 367m to 392m. Continue reading →
For those of you not attending Engage Expo today, here’s a first look at our latest Q4 2009 virtual worlds research…… (we’ll be presenting this in the Virtual Worlds and Games by the Numbers: A look in the market research session).
At the end of Q4 2009, total registered accounts in the virtual worlds sector reached 803m. This is a 19.7% (132m) quarter on quarter increase, from 671m registered accounts in Q3. The table below breaks this out by average user age range.
Over the last four quarters on a registered accounts basis the market has almost doubled, going from 419m to 803m.
Looking at this growth by age range (the average user age), the 15 to 25 year old segment demonstrated the highest growth in Q4, representing a 65% increase from 117m to 193m. Strong performance from IMVU and Habbo drove this uplift.
Second highest growth came in the youngest age range (five to 10 year old) and as the just released Radar chart shows, this segment, in particular for virtual worlds catering to education and development is hotting up. Quarter on quarter growth in this segment was 27m, moving from 152m to 179m.
Our Universe and Radar charts have also been updated based on closing Q4 data. Here’s a post for the Universe and another for the Radar.
The full report covering growth in the virtual worlds sector can be ordered here.
Here’s (of course) a few of charts. Continue reading →
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