Report: Online Game Market to Reach $4.4 Billion by 2010
Market researchers from Parks Associates have forecast the North American online game market to more than triple within the next three years. Parks also looked at the gaming habits of PC gamers vs. console, portable and mobile. The firm will be presenting its latest data at the Austin Game Conference next week.
The analysts at Parks Associates today announced that they will be presenting new research at the upcoming Austin Game Conference (AGC) that suggests the online game market in
While online gaming on the console certainly has grown in recent years, especially with the popularity of Microsoft's Xbox Live service, it's not surprising that the research showed PC gamers to spend the most time playing games. Anyone who's played an MMO, for example, knows how you can become lost in the game for hours on end.
According to Parks' study PC gamers currently spend an average of 18.5 hours playing each week, while console gamers spend 13.6 hours, portable gamers 8.9 hours, and mobile gamers 4.6 hours. Furthermore, of those PC gamers surveyed, 70 percent play some form of multiplayer online game.
Parks Associates, and reports from other analysts such as DFC Intelligence, suggest that the growth of the online gaming market will be fueled by increased adoption of broadband Internet, increased PC penetration, more connected devices (including consoles, gaming portables, mobile phones, etc.) and a rise in the number of games that provide online features. The surge in online gaming also would seem to tie in perfectly with the growing in-game advertising market. As more and more gamers go online with their consoles or PCs, advertisers and brand marketers are doing their best to leverage those eyeballs.
Parks Associates will discuss their study in detail at AGC, along with The NPD Group and MMOGCHART.COM, who will discuss forecasts and industry trends. AGC is run by The Game Initiative and takes place next week, September 6 - 8 in
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