Last week we published the Q2 2014 update of the KZero Universe chart. You can read the supporting article here and order the full (and free) high-res version here. As we tend to do, there’s also a version on Slideshare, which can be viewed below.
Showing cumulative registered accounts, average user ages and launch dates, the KZero Universe chart is used throughout the Virtual World and MMO sector to visualise the market. We’re pleased to announce an updated version of the Universe chart based on brand-new Q2 2014 data. The segment below shows VWs/MMOs with an average user age between 10 and 15 years old.
The larger the circle, the larger the virtual world from a cumulative registered account perspective – simples!
At the younger end of this age range, Poptropica leads the way in terms of registered accounts reaching 313m in Q2. Poptropica has an average user age just over 10, as does Moshi Monsters coming in at 90m cumulative registered accounts.
Moving slightly older into the tween age range, Moviestar Planet is demonstrating explosive growth, doubling in size in the last 12 months and hitting the scales with 182m cumulative registered. An aggressive localisation strategy has assisted greatly in their growth with languages such as Polish, Turkish, French, German and Spanish now catered for.
Strong in terms of both user numbers and monetisation rates, Minecraft now has over 110m registered accounts. Another UGC-based virtual world, Roblox, comes in at approx. a third of the size of Minecraft.
The KZero Universe chart shows active virtual worlds and MMOs. For a sneaky peak at new IPs in development (as well as VWs no longer operational) head-over to the KZero Radar chart, here.
A high-res version of the KZero Universe chart with all segments can be ordered here.
Here’s the full Slideshare presentation for the Q3 2013 update of the KZero Universe chart.
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Yesterday we published the Q3 2013 update of the Universe chart, starting with the Kids sector. This chart shows virtual worlds and MMOs with an average user age of 10 and under. The kids chart is here. Today we’re shifting focus towards the Tween and Teen segment, containing VWs/MMOs with average user ages between 10 and 15. Here’s the chart…
Whereas the kids segment is dominated by a very large world at the upper age range (Club Penguin), a handful of long-established worlds (Neopets and Webkinz) and a smaller (but growing) group of worlds, the Tween/Teen sector is more distributed.
At the younger range of this segment, Poptropica is clearly the leader, with 292m cumulative registered accounts. But, this end of the age range also has power-players such as Moshi Monsters (85m accounts), Bin Weevils (huge in the UK and growing overseas), and Moviestar Planet. Moviestar Planet has quite dramatically grown its userbase in the last 24 months, assisted to a high degree through TV advertising, coupled with localisation into several languages.
Moving older into the age 12 – 14 year old range, Wizard 101, Roblox and Minecraft are slugging it out in the 30-35m account bracket, albeit with different game mechanics.
Finally, shifting up to the 14 – 15 year old segment, girls become more engaged than boys, which reflects the dominance of fashion/dress-up properties such as Stardoll and GoSupermodel, the former just about to hit 250m global registered accounts – and it’s global for a reason as Stardoll has branched out aggressively into new territories.
The full KZero Universe chart is now on Slideshare here.
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Hot off the press, we’ve just updated the KZero Universe chart for Q3 2013. The Kids segment covering virtual worlds and MMOs with an average user age of 10 and under is shown below (and the Tween/Teen chart is here).
Club Penguin dominates the Kids market for virtual worlds and MMOs and added 20m registered accounts from Q1 2013, taking their cumulative total to 220m.
Other userbases in this segment such as Webkinz, Bearville and Neopets, whilst having large 20m+ cumulative accounts, showed slower growth through 2013.
Inversely, the trio of Knowledge Adventure worlds, namely Jumpstart, Math Blaster and recently released School of Dragons all grew strongly year to date, with a combined total of 26m cumulative registered accounts. These guys are leveraging their expertise gleaned from growing Jumpstart, across into their newer portfolio.
Looking at the newer companies in the kids sector, key themes present include mobile/tablet versions (from launch), cross-platform functionality and real-world brand/IP based plays.
Next up we’ll be publishing the tween/teen segment of virtual worlds and MMOs targeting 10 to 15 year olds. The full presentation is over on Slideshare.
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Here’s the presentation Nic delivered at the Digital Kids Conference in New York yesterday.
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And following on from our last post, here’s the Slideshare presentation for the Q4 2012 Universe chart. The hi-res version can be ordered here.
Back by popular demand, we’ve been busy bees over Xmas getting the KZero Universe chart ready. Shown below is an extract from the Universe chart showing virtual worlds and MMOs with an average user age between five and 10.
As per usual, high res versions of the Universe chart presentation can be ordered here, Also included within this report is our forecast for Active Users as at Q4 2012 as well as Market Penetration rates and the Usage Multiplier.
Here’s the chart for the five to 10 year old segment.
Poptropica remains the dominant player in this segment both in terms of their overall user base size as well as forging into new business development efforts such as licensing – a strategy becoming increasingly popular amonst the larger worlds as well as the more aggresive smaller players, such as Fight My Monster.
Founded in the UK, Fight My Monster used (and continues to use) TV advertising very early after launch. The company has also inked several licensing deals which is quite unique considering their relatively small (compared to other UK VWs such as Moshi Monsters and Bin Weevils) user base of circa 2m.
Neo Geo’s Animal Jam continues to expand in line with year one growth, closing Q4 with circa 9m registered users. Another property with ties back to TV is Toonix from Turner. Toonix has pushed through 1m registered accounts in just over a year.
For the full high-res set of Universe charts as well as other data-sets such as Active Users and Market Penetration rates, order here,
The KZero Universe chart is sponsored by Dubit.
Extracts from this report as well as other KZero insight will be presented at the upcoming Digital Kids conference in New York City next month.
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We’ll shortly be publishing the Q4 2012 update of the Universe chart. The Universe chart (for those of you that don’t know) visualises the virtual world and MMO marketplace showing cumulative registered accounts and average user ages for all the companies in the market. The slideshare presentation of the Q1 2012 version of the Universe chart is here.
All the usual suspects (Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, Stardoll, Fantage, Poptropica) will be in the Q4 Universe as well as newer (and growing) kids on the block such as Space Heroes, Skylanders and Pirate 101.
For the Q4 update presentation we’ll also be including our forecasts for active users and overall market penetration. Here’s a sneak-peak at the global active users and market penetration analysis. First up, active users.
We define Active Users as a created user account that has logged into a virtual world or MMO at least once in the quarter. Note that this analysis covers the age ranges of seven to 13 year olds.
The current market sweetspot of 11 and 12 year olds is clearly visible in the chart. Also apparent is the growing domiance of the Asian marketplace, driven by China, India and Indonesia.
The Western world regions of North America and Western Europe also play a pivotal role for the active user counts.
And, if you’re looking for an underserved market segment from an age perspective, the seven to nine year olds is certainly a sector to focus on. Expect some new entrants prepping themselves for launch in Q1 and Q2 of this year.
Here’s the data-table.
On an overall basis we forecast closing Q4 2012 unique active users of 66.4m globally. Asia accounts for 23.2% of the total, followed by North America with 17.6m and Western Europe in third place with 17.6m.
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