Hot off the heels of our updated Universe chart, we’ve just released the updated Radar chart for the same period (you can order the Q2 Radar here). The Radar chart shows virtual worlds by category and stage of development. Here’s one of the segments showing Education,/Learning, Fashion/Lifestyle and Music.
Major developments this quarter (and year)….. Education and Brands/IP are leading the charge in terms of new worlds in development. Continue reading →
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With the largest quarterly increase since we started tracking in 2008, the virtual worlds sector now has 1.4 billion cumulative registered accounts. That’s an increase from Q1 2011 of 214 million. Not bad.
Growth has come from several sources in Q2 2011. The big boys of the sector continued to grow strongly, with excellent numbers from Moshi Monsters (up 16m to 50m), Poptropica (up 26m to 170m), Habbo (up 20m to 220), IMVU (up 5m to 55m), Minecraft (up 5m to 10m) and Stardoll (up 22m to 116m). Encouraging growth all round and also interesting that these worlds span a variety of different play and socialisation types, such as dress-up, nurturing/pets, casual gaming, chat and UGC.
The table below shows the quarterly numbers by age range.
The five to ten year old segment grew 17.6% from Q1 to Q2 assisted primarily by increases from Poptropica and Panfu. The next age segment, 10 t0 15 year olds grew by 16.2%, with Moshi Monsters and Stardoll leading the charge. Next up, the 15 to 25 year olds increased the most with a quarter-on-quarter uplift of 23%. A modest increase was seen in the 25 and older segment – this is a growth area with several companies looking to tap into this underserved market over the coming months,
Here’s the Universe segment for the 10 to 15 year olds.
The full high-res versions of the Universe charts can be ordered here. We’ll be releasing lower res versions via our shortly and via Slideshare.
KZero services:
Strategy
Business Planning
Marketing/Media
Product Development
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