Measuring the Social Report #3: Video Games

December 17, 2008

After visiting television ratings by Nielsen and music charts by Billboard, our newest Measuring the Social report focuses on the top console video games based on gamers’ interactions online as compared to NPD Group‘s monthly list determined by monthly sales. As with our previous reports, we have found some interesting insights based on the differences between the two lists. The online, engaged gaming audience differs greatly from the audience measured by the NPD Group through game sales. The latest report is available here.

Even with slowing economic growth across retailers, the video game industry has been doing surprisingly well, which is why it’s a crucial time for game developers and advertisers to understand the entire audience, offline and on.

The new report exposes this online audience, showing that people are interacting with each other around video games before and after the sale:

The data provides specific insights for different players in the gaming industry. For in-game advertisers, understanding what the audience is engaging around online can improve targeting within the games. For game developers, knowing specific thoughts and sentiments from consumers can help inform future versions and updates, perhaps developing stronger game franchises. Even for those marketing virtual goods within games, customer insight can drive more relevant creative ideas.

Some key findings include:

• 4 of the video games on Networked Insights’ top 10 list do not appear in NPD’s top 10 video games, showing a discrepancy between sales and engagement around video games online
• LittleBigPlanet has a strong social networking and creativity component which resulted in the game earning a much higher spot on Networked Insights’ list due to significant online engagement
• While Guitar Hero: World Tour did not appear on NPD’s list due to its release date in late October, the game was number 9 on Networked Insights’ list due to the significant buzz leading up to its release through the month of October
• Grand Theft Auto IV, which was released in late April 2008, does not appear on the NPD list, but holds the 6th spot on Networked Insights’ list indicating that it is still being played and discussed heavily by gamers even well after the game was released
• While NBA 2K9 is 9th on NPD’s list, no sports games appear in Networked Insights’ top 10, most likely due to the straightforward nature of the games and lack of social interactions around them

Stay tuned for more Measuring the Social reports in the new year, and for continued updates and more social insights subscribe to our feed.

UPDATE: There is some interesting conversation going on at Kotaku who posted about our report last night. The main topic of conversation is that the data does not take into account the sentiment of the interactions — whether people like or dislike the game, for example. In fact, this is the next level of analysis that Networked Insights is capable of, and while we are looking mainly at interactions and overall engagement in this report, upcoming ones will begin to take sentiment into account, because indeed it’s a very important part of people’s interactions online.

Download the third Measuring the Social report here.

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