Mediaedge:cia examines how in-game advertising can best be used to create meaningful relationships between brands and consumers in "Playing with Brands," a new study commissioned from Telenation and designed to help advertisers better understand the optimum role for their brands within computer and video games.
On average, U.S. gamers play for between 3 and 4 hours, over a week's period. To put this into perspective: for heavy U.S. gamers, who spent 11 hours a week playing games, gaming is the fourth-most-popular use of media entertainment in the last week, after watching TV (48 hours), surfing the Internet (29 hours) and listening to radio (18 hours). (Source: Knowledge Networks, Media Scan, Spring 2004).
The potential for in-game communication is further highlighted when video game reach is compared to that of more traditional media:
|
Media
|
Average Daily Cume Reach % (P12-17)
|
Average Daily Cume Reach % (P18-34)
|
|
TV
|
94
|
88
|
|
Radio
|
74
|
72
|
|
Internet
|
51
|
55
|
|
Videogames
|
46
|
20
|
|
Magazines
|
37
|
23
|
|
Newspapers
|
34
|
33
|
|
Yellow Pages
|
8
|
19
|
|
Cinema
|
1
|
0
|
|
Chart Four (Source: Media Scan Spring 2005)
|
Games fall into a number of genres by platform. The best selling genres for video games and computers are as follows:
|
Best Selling
Video Game Genres
|
% of Mkt
|
Best Selling
Computer Game Genres
|
% of Mkt
|
|
Action
|
30.1%
|
Strategy
|
26.9%
|
|
Sports
|
17.8%
|
Family and Children's
|
20.3%
|
|
Shooters
|
9.6%
|
Shooters
|
16.3%
|
|
Children & Family Entertainment
|
9.5%
|
Role-playing
|
10.0%
|
|
Racing
|
9.4%
|
Adventure
|
5.9%
|
|
Role-playing
|
9.0%
|
Sports
|
5.4%
|
|
Fighting
|
5.4%
|
Action
|
3.9%
|
Chart Five Source: The NPD Group/NPD Funworld
Additionally, the latest Top 10 video game titles ranked by total U.S. units for Q305 are:
TOP 10 VIDEO GAME TITLES
RANKED BY TOTAL U.S. UNITS
QUARTER 3 - 2005
|
RANK
|
TITLE
|
PUBLISHER
|
RELEASE
DATE
|
ARP
|
|
1
|
PS2 MADDEN NFL 06
|
ELECTRONIC ARTS
|
Aug-05
|
$49
|
|
2
|
XBX MADDEN NFL 06
|
ELECTRONIC ARTS
|
Aug-05
|
$49
|
|
3
|
PS2 NCAA FOOTBALL 06
|
ELECTRONIC ARTS
|
Jul-05
|
$49
|
|
4
|
XBX NCAA FOOTBALL 06
|
ELECTRONIC ARTS
|
Jul-05
|
$49
|
|
5
|
XBX HALO 2 MAP PACK
|
MICROSOFT
|
Jul-05
|
$20
|
|
6
|
GBA POKEMON EMERALD
|
NINTENDO OF AMERICA
|
Apr-05
|
$35
|
|
7
|
PS2 STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT
|
LUCASARTS
|
Sep-04
|
$20
|
|
8
|
PS2 NBA LIVE 06
|
ELECTRONIC ARTS
|
Sep-05
|
$49
|
|
9
|
PS2 LEGO STAR WARS
|
EIDOS INTERACTIVE
|
Mar-05
|
$39
|
|
10
|
GCN MARIO SUPERSTAR BASEBALL
|
NINTENDO OF AMERICA
|
Sep-05
|
$50
|
|
Chart Six Source: The NPD Group / NPD Funworld® / Point-of-Sale
|
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