IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Madden NFL 11 Stealing Playtime from Modern Warfare 2

Posted August 18, 2010 by James Brightman

Raptr, which formally announced its social gaming network last month, has issued its first Raptr Industry Trends Report, which takes a look at the impact EA Sports' Madden NFL 11 launch is having on other games and how it stacks up against the previous Madden.

"Overall, the game experienced the usual initial explosion and gradual decrease seen with other Madden games. What’s fascinating is that play time for Madden 10 spiked +237% the month before Madden 11 launch,  suggesting that gamers went back to warm up their fingers for the upcoming sequel," the report noted. 

Interestingly, EA's demo seemed to be much less effective in winning over sales for the game. "Madden 11’s demo converted 30% of people who played it to the full version within the first week. Last year, Madden 10 showed a 45% conversion in that same time frame. While both numbers are impressive, it seems that up take this year was down quite a bit," Raptr remarked.

That said, the people who did buy the game diverted their attention away from other top titles, like Activision Blizzard's Modern Warfare 2, for instance. 

Top 10 games Madden 11 stole playtime from:

1. NCAA Football 11
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
3. Madden 11 Demo
4. Madden 10
5. MLB 2K10
6. NBA 2K10
7. Gears of War 2
8. NHL 10
9. Castlevania: Harmony of Despair
10. Mass Effect 2

As Raptr commented, those last two on the list are somewhat "considering that one game has been out for a while, and the other is a DLC only game on XBLA."

James Brightman has been covering the games industry since 2003 and has been an avid gamer ever since the days of Atari and Intellivision. He was previously the EIC of GameDaily Biz.