comScore Studies Online Gaming Habits

A new report from digital measurement company comScore investigates traffic to the top playable game sites.

comScore, an technology statistics service, released a report that found that online gaming has reached 217 million people worldwide. The World Metrix study, which included online or downloadable games but excluded gambling sites, found that the 17 percent year-over-year growth rate reached 28 percent of the internet user base and the average online gamer visited a site nine times a month.

The most frequented online destination was Yahoo! Games, which attracts about 52.5 million unique visitors per month to its puzzle and card games, the leading game genres on the internet. WildTangent Networks, the fastest growing site, expanded its viewership by 398 percent in the past year to 11.5 million visitors in May 2007.

Bob Ivins, Executive Vice President of comScore Europe, said, "With one in four internet users visiting a gaming site, playing games online is extremely popular. The fact that these websites are pulling in over a quarter of the total worldwide internet population shows what a global phenomenon gaming has become. The potential of the online gaming arena should be especially appealing for advertisers, as the average online gamer visits a gaming site nine times a month."