Social gaming, driven by Facebook and MySpace developers, really emerged in 2009 and it continues to be a hot space this year. According to a new report from the Inside Network, the total U.S. market size for virtual goods will reach $1.6 billion in 2010, with social gaming contributing $835 million of that total.
The report, Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming, notes that in 2009 social games "began to show that immense value can be created on top of social networks," and this year social gaming will be the "industry to watch."
"2009 was the year that casual games like Zynga's popular Farmville took over the major social platforms and changed the way millions of people socialized with friends online. Casual games introduced a rich, new way of interacting with friends on social networks, and saw the highest engagement numbers that the online entertainment industry has ever witnessed," said Justin Smith, founder of Inside Network's InsideFacebook.com and InsideSocialGames.com.
"With tens of millions of returning users, and millions of new visitors daily, it is no wonder that the social gaming industry saw significant M&A activity: an up-to-$400 million acquisition of Playfish by Electronic Arts, and hundreds of millions of dollars in additional venture investments. Social games are now impacting businesses across the media landscape," added Charles Hudson, VP of Business Development at Serious Business, and host of the annual Virtual Goods Summit.
More information on the report is available here.
7 Comments
January 26, 2010
Your article title may need a re-think.
Although I think the title is closer to the mark than the report, maybe its for the best.
January 26, 2010
The title was phrased that way because social games are the big growth driver here.
January 26, 2010
I meant that you mistyped "Billions" as "Millions" in the title.
A $1.6 Million isn't anything to write home about.
January 26, 2010
It is indeed billions - funny how something like this has gone from a million dollar industry a couple years ago to a billion dollar one.
January 26, 2010
Wow, my brain must have been fried. Thanks innerloop.
March 11, 2010
this has gone from a million dollar industry a couple years ago to a billion dollar one.
micro sd card
June 9, 2010
What im wondering is how soon will the market be flooded. With every one wanting to sell virtual goods it will become so cheap that the time invested in it wont pay off. Eventual the goods we buy will become so cheap that it will take away from the game making people loose interest and money.