Media Blast

NIELSEN PROVIDES MOBILE GAMING STATISTICS

With the E3 video game conference beginning this week, Nielsen is pleased to provide you with mobile gaming statistics from Nielsen Mobile, a service of The Nielsen Company and the world’s leading provider of mobile audience measurement and wireless market research.

Below you will find key stats for the mobile gaming industry in terms of top titles, usage patterns and demographics.  With the new rising ‘Rhythm Game’ genre, we have focused on data regarding the latest hit game for the mobile platform, Guitar Hero III.  

As of Q1 2008:

-  Nielsen Mobile estimates that there were 19 million game downloaders (7% of wireless subscribers) for Q1 2008.

Overall Top 5 Game Titles (by revenue share)

1.  Tetris

2.  Bejeweled

3.  Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?

4.  Guitar Hero III

5.  PAC-MAN

Overall Top 5 Game Categories (by revenue share)

1.  Puzzle/Strategy

2.  Action/Adventure

3.  Sports/Racing

4.  Card/Casino

5.  Trivia/Word

How has Guitar Hero III been faring?

-  Since December 2007, total purchases of Guitar Hero III have increased each month, making it the most successful game in the ‘Rhythm’ genre

-  Guitar Hero III accounts for more than half of Hands-On Mobile’s publisher revenue

-  Despite initially not being available to all major carriers, the title has regularly been a top seller for the past few months

Who’s playing Guitar Hero III?

-  The game is especially popular with younger gamers, with 75% of purchasers under the age of 25

-       54% of all purchasers were 13-17 years old; by comparison, the age group comprised just 11% of game purchasers across all titles

-   Although 60% of all game downloaders are female, Guitar Hero III is popular among both genders, as purchasers are 47% male and 53% female

Comments (on the record) from Eric Puterbaugh, Director of Mobile Media, Nielsen Mobile:

"Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and other rhythm-based games are red-hot right now.  The tremendous sales of Guitar Hero III for mobile prove that the popularity of these franchises transcends plastic guitars and living rooms.”

"With 3 additional new songs available for download every month, fans won’t be getting tired of rocking out on their mobile phones anytime soon.”

About Nielsen Mobile

Nielsen Mobile, a service of The Nielsen Company, is the world's largest independent provider of syndicated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets. Nielsen Mobile focuses exclusively on tracking the behavior, attitudes and experiences of mobile consumers; their reports also provide up to seven years of data on internet, video, gaming, audio and advertising trends for mobile phone users. Nielsen’s technology-driven research provides unique and holistic insight into how mobile customers use their devices and what they think about brands, devices and services. For more information, please visit www.nielsenmobile.com.

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Rex Chien

+1 415-228-9050