Advertising in Games Forum Yields Gaming Growth Data

At the Game Initiative's first annual Advertising in Games Forum, held April 14, 2005 in New York City, a number of key facts, figures and estimates were provided to the audience by leading industry experts at the Advertising In Games Forum. Highlights include:

• The Yankee Group forecasted advertising in games is expected to rise to $800 million in 2009 from nearly $120 million in 2004.
• $266 Million, or more than one-third of advertising in games in 2009, will come from "advergaming," when advertisers create a game around a product rather than place their brands within a well-known title, according to Yankee Group senior analyst Mike Goodman at the Advertising In Games Forum.
• Mitch Davis, chief executive of video game ad network Massive Inc., told the audience video game advertising would top $1 billion in the United States by 2010, and approach $2.5 billion worldwide.
• There are 100 million game capable cell phones are currently in the marketplace. 65% of the population owns a cell phone. And the turn over or replacement rate of cell phones is every 16 months, reported Anita Frazier, Entertainment Industry Analyst, NPD Group, at the Advertising In Games Forum. Every cell phone being sold on the market today is game capable. So within 16 months all cell phones in the marketplace should be game capable.
• The top selling 2004 game titles according to the NPD Group: 1 Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, 5.5 million sold since launch 2. Halo 2 on X box, 4.5 million units sold since launch 3. Madden NFL 2004 on PS 2, 3.5 million units sold since launch 4. ESPN NFL 2K5, 1.6 million units sold since launch 5. Need for Speed Underground 2, 1.7 million units since launch
• Top selling PC title of 2004: Sims 2 with 750,000 units sold., reported NPD Group at the Advertising In Games Forum
• Best selling game title of all time: Grand Theft Auto Vice City with 6.5 million units, followed very closely by Super Mario 64 on the N64 which is about 6.0 milllion units, according to Anita Frazier, Entertainment Industry Analyst, NPD Group, at the Advertising In Games Forum.