July 09, 2010

With the market for games played on social networks reaching a substantial $639m in 2009, Screen Digest kicks off its coverage of this sector with a global report tracking performance in 2008 and 2009, with forecasts through to 2014. This global report includes data on North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle-East and Africa, and Asia Pacific and highlights the growing importance of social networks as emerging distribution platforms of entertainment content, with games leading the way.

The data and forecasts concentrate on the performance of three separate business models: sale of virtual currency and goods through microtransactions to gamers, lead generation revenues to operators and advertising revenue to operators.

The market remains dominated by the distribution power and massive userbase of Facebook, but this market is by no means a one network opportunity. Screen Digest is tracking millions of users on alternative social networks that are playing games, especially in markets where Facebook is not highly penetrated such as China, Russia and Japan. And with monthly active users of games reaching over 500m at the end of 2009, from a much smaller base of 60m in 2008, it is clear that much of the recent growth in the PC casual games market is now being driven by social games.

This report is a prelude to the inclusion of social games forecasts within the Games Intelligence service, tracking performance in 32 territories worldwide. The games team will also be releasing a bi-annual Social Games market monitor tracking games performance on Facebook, game genre performance, M&A activity in the sector and company performance.

Highlights:

• The social games market surged to be worth $639m in 2009, up from $76m in 2008
• Average monthly active users of games grew to over 500m globally
• USA is the largest market for social games, way ahead of second placed UK
• China, Russia and Germany are all expected to grow significantly during the next five years
• Facebook dominates distribution of social games, but other social networks, especially in Asia Pacific, are increasing their catalogues of games and will also drive growth of this sector
• Zynga is the dominant operator in the sector and is the only company generating revenues over $100m
• Growth will moderate significantly from 2010 onwards now the market is established - the market is forecast to be worth $1.5bn in 2014

In this report:

• Increase in social network users and games content drives growth of market in 2009
• A large majority of social games revenues are generated by sales of virtual currency and goods that are spent on and in games
• North American users spend the most on social games, followed by Europeans and then those social gamers in Asia Pacific
• USA is the biggest country market for social games
• China, Russia and Germany are all expected to grow significantly during the next five years
• Monthly active users of games will increase significantly over next five years
• Zynga is the dominant operator in the sector and is the only company generating revenues over $100m
• 2010 trends: M&A activity to continue, operators drive growth from existing customers, content will become increasingly complex

 

Tables and charts included:

• World social games market, 2009 and forecasts to 2014, $m
• World consumer spending on microtransactions for social games ($m)
• World lead generation operator revenues from social games ($m)
• World advertising operator revenues from social games ($m)
• 2009 Regional market share %
• Business model value share, 2009 %
• Key country markets 2009 market size, $m
• Key country markets 2014 market size, $m
• Regional average monthly active games user forecasts (m)
• Average MAUs of games during 2009
• Top 5 games operators in 2009
• Zynga: Business model share, 2009
• Zynga: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• Playfish: Business model share, 2009
• Playfish: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• Playdom: Business model share, 2009
• Playdom: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• Five Minutes: Business model share, 2009
• Five Minutes: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• SlashKey: Business model share, 2009
• SlashKey: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• Rekoo: Business model share, 2009
• Rekoo: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• Crowdstar: Business model share, 2009
• Crowdstar: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• RockYou: Business model share, 2009
• RockYou: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• TheBroth: Business model share, 2009
• TheBroth: Key title stats, Dec 2009
• Serious Business: Business model share, 2009
• Serious Business: Key title stats, Dec 2009

Pages: 24

Tables & charts: 31

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