Examining the Key Players of Casual Gaming: Social Network Games

Picking up from the Casual Gaming Explosion! post, the first key player examined: social network games.

Perhaps the current king of casual gaming, social network games have gained significant popularity and adoption for a relatively new gaming activity. Some quick statistics:

• The NPD Group finds that one in five Americans age 6 and older reports having played a game on a social network in the past three months; equating to 56.8 million U.S. consumers.
• The same study found that 10 percent of social network gamers have reported spending real money playing these games and 11 percent indicate that they are likely to make a future purchase.
• Nielsen reports that online games, including social networks games, is the second most popular activity online in the U.S., consuming 10.2 percent of the time people spend on the internet. Number one was social network and blog sites at 22.7 percent.
• Appdata.com reports that the very popular social network game Farmville had reached 81 million users in April 2010, with stories of Farmville addiction widespread online. The number has decreased significantly now, but Farmville still has over 55 millions active users as of December 2010.

Once reserved for those with dedicated gaming systems, social network gaming has seen significant growth likely due to its free-to-play nature, simplistic concepts, and easy accessibility online for the average user. However, a weakness of social network gaming have been gamers’ frustration with slow loading and performance issues and getting bored by the games easily.

Market Value: I see social networking gaming being a catalyst to broaden the gamer demographic by introducing previously non-gamers to their first electronic gaming experience. This gaming platform does not have to be a direct competitor to the big three gaming companies Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft if they are able to leverage the stated weakness and effectively position their offerings to be a richer, more fulfilling gaming experience towards those consumers seeking more. Each company needs to capture the faint interest established and develop it to a call to action within users to upgrade to their respective entertainment experience.

What are your thoughts on social network games?