Nearly 40% Of The US Population Enjoys Free-To-Play Games

Free-to-play games are all the rage here in 2012. With MMOs, social games and mobile games leading the way, some analysts see the model as the inevitable wave of the future across genres. And given how very well freemium games seem to be doing, they might just be right.

This is the first paragraph of an article found on Kotaku. It contains some interesting insights that fit the consumer and business insights focus of our blog. The article continues …

The NPD analyst group’s newest report confirms that, love them or hate them, the games are now a really big deal. Thirty eight percent of the United States population, they report, currently play some kind of freemium game. That’s an estimate of roughly 114 million people, give or take.

The data came from a survey of over 6000 American children and adults, and some of the report’s other findings run against the current conventional wisdom. They found that while girls and women are, as expected, significantly more likely to play freemium games, male consumers are the ones more likely to pay real cash for virtual goodies.

…..

Read full article on Kotaku