Social online gaming just keeps growing

The Global Online Gaming Report 2012 reveals that the UK and Germany are among the top European markets for online gaming, and last year almost 20 percent of total time playing games online in Great Britain was spent on social networks, with only console games competing.

And as other observers have noted, the mobile communication revolution is boosting numbers even more.

Assessing the online phenomenon, Socialnomics says that 81 million people play social games every day…and that number is rising.

Technology writer Rae Rutan identifies positive trends in social gaming as:

* Freemium games are growing in popularity as developers seek to monetise their offerings through free-play to reach levelos and rewards, with users given the option to buy premium features like better equipment or more virtual currency units or points. Rutan quoites a Guardian study which revealed that at least half of the 10 top mobile apps in August were freemium-based.

* Rutan says that a study of US and UK social gamers found that almost all of them play multiple times a week, and over 60 percent at least once a day. This trend is expected to continue and grow.

* The use of social games as an advertising channel is growing, with major brands partnering with gaming companies to reach out to the massive numbers of social gamers. Marketers are positioning themselves to be associated with popular games, and popular television shows are increasingly being deployed in social gaming app form, merging television and social gamer audiences.

“Social gaming is hot,” says Rutan. “Using freemium models, tapping into online gambling and blending TV and gaming are just a few of the ways that the future of social gaming is moving ahead.”

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