We talk a lot about the digital revolution that traditional media is being put through: upheaval, readership and audience shrinkage, bankruptcy, pay walls... This post is part of a major update to a host of previous ones published in 2009 and 2010 on this blog.
What's the situation really like in 2011? Traditional media are not dead - not yet at least. But many newcomers have made their entrance on the marketing landscape in the last 10-15 years. Let's look at the situation with Social Games a bit:
Definition
- All types of "Facebook games" such as Mafia Wars, FarmVille, Treasure Island, Happy Island, FrontierVille, FishVille, Happy Aquarium, Texas HoldEm, Cafe World, PetVille, Pet Society, Birthday Cards...
Reach
- 320 million people have played a Zynga game at least 1x (Mashable 2010/11/15)
- 56 million Americans play social games regularly - this accounts for 10% of time spent online, more important than email. (Nielsen 2010/09)
- 25% of Americans online between 16 and 64 play monthly (Lightspeed Research 2010/02), that's around 40 million regular players
- 39% of them play daily (be it a social game or Internet connected console
- 11% participate in MMPG (massively multiplayer games) such as World of Warcraft
- 9% play in a virtual world like Second Life
- 83 million FarmVille (Zynga) monthly users worldwide (Mashable 2010/06) That's bigger than Twitter!
- 47 million on Birthday Cards - RockYou
- 31 million on Cafe World - Zynga
- 27 million on Texas HoldEm - Zynga
- 26 million on Happy Aquarium - CrowdStar
- 25 million on Mafia Wars - Zynga
- 24 million on FishVille - Zynga
- 20 million on Zoo World - RockYou
- 19 million on PetVille - Zynga
- 19 million on Pet Society - Playfish
- Top5 games in December 2010 by # players (Mashable 2010/12):
- 61,671,732 CityVille
- 56,848,083 FarmVille
- 47,175,029 Phrases
- 34,624,546 Texas HoldEm Poker
- 30,802,984 FrontierVille
- 5 million daily users on FrontierVille (Mashable 2010/06) - launched June 9th 2010 = 5 million subs in 13 days!
- Zynga is the most successful development firm with 6 of the top10 games:
- 235 million users across all their games
- 65 million daily users
- 20 million monthly users on Xbox Live
- 1.5 million monthly users on World of Warcraft
- 53% of Facebook's 600 million users play social games (WeAreSocial 2010/11)
- 19% say they're hooked
- 69% are female
- 20% have spent real $$ to obtain game goods
- 56 million play daily in the UK
- 290 million play monthly WorldWide (equivalent to the US population)
- 50% of visits to Facebook are specifically to play social games
- 210 minutes of game time monthly
- 10% (60 million) of all Facebook users (600 millions) play FarmVille (Mashable 2011/02/15)
- 30 million daily, vs 24 million that wath Dancing With the Stars in the same period...
- 100 million monthly users on CityVille (Mashable 2011/01/13)
- The top 3 social game makers (used on Facebook) are Playfish (49 million active month players), Crowdstar (49M) and Zynga (230M) (Social Media Today)
Usage
- 7% of users spend real money for virtual goods or points in game and continue doing so after 4 months of play (Mashable 2010/06)
- North Americans spend an average $258 in 4 months
- Europeans spend $272
- Asians spend $202
- Latin Americans spend the most : $300
- There are more virtual tractors sold daily in FarmVille than are sold in the US per year. (Mashable 2010/06)
- Top crops on Farmville vs actual farms worldwide (Mashable 2010/09):
- Farmville : Strawberries, Wheat, Grapes, Rice, Pumpkins, Cranberries, Soyo, Peas and Sunflowers
- Farms : Sugar Cane, Corn, Wheat, Rice, Potatoes, Beats, Soya, Palm Oil, Barley, Tomatoes
User Profile
- 25% of Americans users are between 16-24 years old
- The average Farmville user is a woman aged 43 and earning $50,000 or more, vs men 57years old that are the average farmer earning an average $35,500$ (Mashable 2010/09)
- 60% women, vs 13% actual farmer women
- 60 million Farmville users is approximately 1% of the world's population, 2% of the world population that actually works in or near agriculture, 3% of Internet users worldwide, 3000% the number of actual farmers in the US,
- 70 million hours spend on Farmville monthly
- 18 million play daily
- 33% between 18-34 years old (Mashable 2010/11/27)
- 142 index for household income between $60-100k
- 84% are white, 7% are Hispanics
- Mafia Wars users are (Mashable 2010/11/27)
- 51% women
- 28% between 18-34 years old
- 157 index between 13-17 years old
- 168 index for household income below $30k
- 71% are white, 17% are African Americans
- 30-39 year olds is the most active group (25%) in social games in the UK (eMarketer 2010/02/26) followed by 22-29 year olds (22%) and 40-49 year olds (22%).
- The average American player's age is 48. 50-59 year olds are the most active in the US (eMarketer 2010/02/26) followed by 30-39 year olds, 40-49 year olds and 60+ with 20%. Over 50% are women.
Marketing Applications
- $1M sold daily in virtual farm equipment (DBA Worldwide)
- 40% of time spent on Facebook is specifically on social games (Playdom 2010/07/30)
- $2,183 million = social gaming industry revenues projected in the US for 2012 (ThinkEquity 2009/10), vs $726 million in 2009, 200% growth in 3 years
- $1,191 million (55%) by users through direct payments (buying virtual goods or points)
- $868 million (40%) by users through indirect payments (opt to fill out a survey or offer themselves as a sales lead for partners such as Netflix, Blockbuster...)
- $124 million (5%) in advertising revenues
- 60% growth in ad spend on social games since 2009 (Mashable 2010/12/06)
- 550% growth in spontaneous awareness for advertisers on social games on average!
- $192 million projected ad spend in social games for 2011 in the US (+33% vs 2010), $293M worldwide ($101M outside the US) (eMarketer 2010/06)
- $4billion = estimated value of FarmVille (Mashable 2010/06)
- 41% of users make repeat buys (Mashable 2010/06)
- 90% of Zynga's revenues come from the sale of virtual goods or points (Mashable 2010/06) - 45% directly from FarmVille
- Zynga is PayPal's 2nd most important merchant, eBay is 1st
- Facebook credits are exchangeable against virtual goods and points in over 100 games and applications such as Farmville and Mafia Wars. In 2011 they'll also be applicable against actual goods & services available through Facebook (Social Media Examiner 2010/12)