MEASURING THE DIGITAL WORLD

Measuring the Online Gamer

GDC Austin – September 2008

Data Sourced From comScore’s Global Panel of
2MM Internet Users Worldwide

A
A Global
Global Measurement
Measurement of
of Audience
Audience and
and e-Commerce
e-Commerce 360°
360° View
View of
of Consumer
Consumer Behavior
Behavior

Web Visiting
and
and Viewing
Viewing

Demographics Online
Life Stages Transactions

Search
Search
Gameplay
Behavior

32 Individually Reported Countries Media

Exposure
172 Countries with Sample Presence

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 2
 Companies that use our data…

Technology Financial Retail Travel CPG Pharma Telcom

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 3
comScore observes consumers’ online gaming
behaviors

We predict, with great

accuracy, the behaviors
of the entire World-wide
audience…

Starting with a large

sample of audiences in
nearly every country…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 4
 Additionally…

Edward Hunter,
from comScore <> Gordon Freeman,
from Half-Life
Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 5
The need for gaming audience measurement

In the beginning things were easy.

Gamers
Ages: 18 – 24
Gender: Males
Country: U.S.

Throw a rock at a group of U.S. 18 – 24 males,

hit a gamer, hit five gamers…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 6
The need for gaming audience measurement

Those days are gone.

Gamers
Gamers
Ages: 35+
Gender: Females
Ages: 18 – 24 Country: Worldwide
Gender: Males Genre:
Country: Worldwide Console/Fitness
Gamers

Gamers Ages: 54+

Gender: Males
Ages: 25-24 Country: Worldwide
Gender: Females Genre: Online Multiplayer
Gamers
Country: Worldwide Board, Card
Genre: Offline Casual Ages: 14- 17
Gender: Females
Country: Worldwide
Genre: Online MMO

You’ll still hit a gamer if you throw a rock…

But unless your game is targeted at that specific type of gamer..

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 7
The need for gaming audience measurement

Probably you’ll just have really angry gamers.

But understanding and measuring your audience(s) isn’t only

important to protect yourself from an angry mob..

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 8
The Demand for `Hard Numbers` is rising…

Who
Who is
is making
making the
the demand?
demand? What
What are
are they
they demanding?
demanding?

■ Publishers ■ Reach/Frequency
■ Producers ■ Genre Preferences
■ Marketers ■ Market Size
■ Advertisers ■ Demographics
■ Venture Capitalists ■ Exposure data
■ Media outlets ■ Engagement
Take Away: Your elevator pitches had better start including
more numbers than just the floor your getting off on.
Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 9
Where are the changes in gamer audiences happening?

The short answer is: Everywhere.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 10
Where is this change occurring?

2007
2008

You are reading this correctly; 2.2 million more young girls
are playing online games than last year.
Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan
Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 11
Where is this change occurring?
Are we awake yet?

2007 2008

Then how about the 4 million new female gamers in the 35+
demo, up 21% over last year?
Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan
Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 12
Where is this change occurring?
Certainly though as we get older, our gameplay slows…right?

2007 2008

Apparently, one and a half million new male gamers

over 55 years old didn’t get that memo.
Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan
Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 13
Newsflash: Those numbers were all just U.S.

Here’s the world-wide picture.

2007 2008

The audience for online games worldwide grew 29% in the

last 12 months adding 68 million new gamers.
Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan
Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 14
So what’s the big idea?

The Gamer we used to know.

18 – 34 Male
Technically Savvy
Resistant to Marketing
Less frequent consumption of traditional media

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore
 So what’s the big idea?

The Gamer today.

All ages, genders, ethnicities

Internet Savvy

Accustomed to advertising

Consuming less traditional media

The big idea is: The gaming audience has changed from unique to mainstream,
so creating and marketing games needs to become more mainstream.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore
.
Key Takeaways

■ The overall gaming audience world-wide is growing fast

■ The demographics experiencing the most interesting growth are also
the unexpected demographics
■ These demographics are not all Gen-Y/Gen-X, you cannot reach them
with skateboards and Mountain Dew™.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore
Three critical reasons to measure your audience

Marketing teams can

discover where to find
the target consumers for
the game
Producers and content
developers can
understand the lifestyle
and characteristics of
the audience being
targeted
Publishers and Studios
can get an accurate
estimate of the
consumer market for an
online game

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 18
It’s important to note that;

Much
Much about
about the
the gaming
gaming audience
audience has
has changed.
changed.

1. More women play games online then men.

2. Game genres no longer dictate the audience for that game, where the game is played is now a
major contributing factor.
3. Attitudes of gamers have changed as the demographic compositions have been altered.
4. The most successful games today are marketed in traditional media channels, across a broad set
of target demographics
5. The behaviors or the online gaming audiences show little difference today than the audiences of
any other mainstream medium.

It will never return to the standard 18-24 Male audience it once was.

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 19
Online Gamers Internet Persona - Demographics

Age Breakouts

Gender

Geographic Distribution

Incomes

Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 20
Online Gamers Internet Persona - Engagement

Online Gameplay
Average Session Times

Female Males

Women Prefer (Top 3 Preferences):

- Puzzle, Card and Arcade Games

Men Prefer (Top 3 Preferences):

- Action, Cards, Strategy

Source: comScore MediaMetrix, GamePlan

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 21
Checkpoint

How much do you know about

your target audience(s)?

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 22
Audiences change, perceptions change

18 – 34

Traditional Notions
“Hardcore Gamers”
Game Advertising Resistant

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 23
Audiences change, perceptions change

As young teens Bringing with them the

age, they enter behavioral
the next characteristics of
demographic the previous demo.

Maturing Gamers
14-17 18 – 34

Traditional Notions
“Softer Gamers”
Grew up online with ads

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 24
Audiences change, perceptions change

New gamers enter the

gaming demographic with
a completely different set
of characteristics
Traditional Notions
“Light Gamers”
No preconceptions New
Open to most gaming models Gamers
And those become
part of the
demographic too.

18 – 34

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 25
Audiences change, perceptions change

Traditional Notions
“New adopters
console New
online casual Gamers

MATURING
GAMERS
18 – 34 35+

Traditional Notions
“Mixed Gamers”
Lifestyle changes

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 26
Audiences change, perceptions change

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 27
What everyone knows: Online Gamers have changed…

So, how do we track and measure this change?

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 28
What does ‘Measuring the Online Gamer’ Mean?

■ Change in the online gaming audience

has taken place in:
 Age
 Gender
 Nationality
 Locale
 Media Consumption
 Spending Habits
 Online behaviors
 Offline (lifestyle) behaviors

Why
Why does
does the
the gaming
gaming audience
audience seem
seem to
to have
have such
such broad
broad attributes?
attributes?

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 29
All online gamers are not created alike…

■ ‘Connected’ or Online Games come in

many shapes and sizes
– MMO
– Shooters
– Casual and hard core card games
– Casual ‘widget’ games
– More…

■ Gameplay crosses genres…

sometimes.
■ Interests and behaviors differ greatly
between gaming audiences
■ Reaching and understanding ‘online
gamers’? Too large of a target.

Lets
Lets start
start thinking
thinking about
about Online
Online Gamer
Gamer ‘Segments’
‘Segments’

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 30
What the heck is an ‘Online Gamer Segment’?

EXAMPLE: COMPARING THE ‘HEAVY ONLINE GAMER’ TO THE ‘LIGHT ONLINE GAMER’

Heavy
Heavy Online
Online Gamer
Gamer Light
Light Online
Online Gamer
Gamer

Behaviors Behaviors
■ Online 57 hours a month ■ Online 36 hours a month
– And 24% of that is online gaming – Only 1% of that is online gaming

■ Leans towards Instant messaging, ■ Consumes more traditional

Gaming Information Sites entertainment and retail content
■ Demographically Trends towards ■ Demographically Trends towards
Male 18-24 Female 25-30
■ Online game genre favorites are ■ Online game genre favorites are
MMO, FPS, RTS puzzle, card, strategy

Source: comScore (c) 2008

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 31
And that means what exactly?

While significant overlap in online

gamer behaviors exist, behaviors
overall between groups can be
dramatic.

Obvious overlap in behaviors

can be self-evident, but the
devil is in the details...

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 32
Show of hands: Which category of online gamers
exhibits the highest traffic to online computer
hardware retailers?

Light gamers
visitation to Retail
Computer Hardware
sites ranks #1 in
overall retail site
visitation

Medium online
gamers rank #2…

Heavy online
gamers rank it #4…

After books…

And Department
Stores…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore
Lets try again: Rank Light, Medium and Heavy Online
gamers by musical entertainment consumption
online…

Light online gamers

have the highest
consumption of
music entertainment
online

Heavy online
gamers rank #2…

Medium gamers
come in third…

After television…

And kids
entertainment…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore
A difference in approaching the target…

Psst! I’m a
big huge
target…

“ONLINE GAMERS”

The old way…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 35
A difference in approaching the target…

Heavy online gamers

Male (18 – 34)

Heavy online gamers

Female (18 – 34)

Medium online gamers

Male (12 – 18)

Light online gamers

Female (18 – 34)

The NEW way…

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 36
Market Sizing: How many people will play your
game?

The measurement of online behaviors that pertain to

online gaming effectively establish the market size
potential of an online game.

Online content consumption

Search terms and search volume
Online purchasing
Game play/Cross Play
Genre, platform, interactivity preferences

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 37
Audience Profiling: Who are these people anyway?

Once you have established the online behaviors of

your target audience, defining who they are is a
matter of documenting;

Age, Gender, Geographic and Income Demographics

Internet connection speed

PC or console details
Gameplay behaviors (e.g Subscriptions to games, Widget game play)
Offline behaviors, lifestyle, viewpoints, attitudes

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 38
Marketing to the Masses: You know how many,
you know who, so…where are they?

Marketing to your target audience is simple: find out where

the audience hangs out online.

Anyone can figure that out.

Honing in on other behaviors = competitive advantage:

Traditional Media Consumption (Television, Print, etc)

Lifestyle, habits and hobbies
Travel, electronics and media purchasing
And all of the other measurements too….

Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 39
Build your games to be measured!!

■ Don’t go radio silent

■ Make traditional internet calls
■ Signal user actions
– Ad exposure
– Session start/Session stop
– Significant actions
– Insert (thing you want to measure) here
All
Present
ation
Data
Sources
provide
d by
comSco
re
Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore ©2008
Got Questions?

Let’s open the floor for a few questions!

You can also email me with

any questions at:
erhunter@comscore.com

Want a copy of today’s presentation?

Visit http://www.comscore.com/request/gamers.asp
Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore All Presentation Data Sources provided by comScore ©2008