SECOND LIFE DOUBLES ITS MARKET SHARE!

This pic has nothing to do with this story. I just didn't know what to put for it.

According to the great reporter Hamlet Au, Second Life really did do what it claimed: It expanded its base of new users. According to the latest research by Nielsen, it doubled its ratings.

Here are the ratings for online games and the complete Hamlet Au story below.

Top PC Games, October 2011: WoW Grows Audience, Second Life Doubles Share, 3 of the Top 10 are MMOs

By Hamlet Au

The Nielsen ratings service just updated its list of Top Ten most played non-browser PC games in the US, based on data gathered from application activity in 180,000+ homes, and there's several significant changes from last Summer. Here's the latest results, from October 2011:

Original chart copyright Nielsen

Nielsen's last list was from June 2011, which I blogged about here, and there's a number of notable shifts in October's listings:

• In October, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft significantly grew its audience share since June 2011, when it had 6.3% share and 28% of the total market percentage (or TMP). WoW lost nearly two million subscribers this year, so it's likely this growth on Nielsen is from new/trial users responding to Blizzard's advertising campaigns and change to its subscription model. (You can now play WoW for free up until level 20.)
• Three of the Top Ten are now MMOs: Along with June Top Ten holdouts WoW and Lord of the Rings Online is Dungeons & Dragons Online. Notably, the latter two are free-to-play. LOTRO has gained quite a lot of market share since the Summer, going from 1.35% share and 3.5% TMP in June to 1.98% and 4% TMP in October.
• Notable for Second Life fans and Linden Lab: SL nearly doubled its market share, going from .539% share in June 2011 (when it was ranked 11), to .96% in October 2011 (when it ranked 15 overall, reflecting not a decline in popularity, but new entrants to the Top Ten.) I got this data via Nielsen's Bradley Raczka, and it seems like independent confirmation of Linden Lab's claim, in August, that SL was growing its base of new users.

See all the Nielsen game ratings here. And for comparison, see Nielsen's June 2011 top PC games chart (and SL's status in it) after the break.

Continue reading "Top PC Games, October 2011: WoW Grows Audience, Second Life Doubles Share, 3 of the Top 10 are MMOs"