Casual Gamers Boost Online Gaming Market

A new report from the market research division of Screen Digest suggests that revenues generated by casual online games will be 1.5 times greater than those produced by the hardcore massively multiplayer online sector. The report suggests that simple browser based games such as poker, solitaire and puzzle games have emerged as the biggest money spinners, rather than MMORPGs such as EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies. Pay-per-play browser gaming, where users pay to enter skill-based games tournaments to compete for cash and other prizes, is seen as the fastest growing sub-sector. A $35 million global market only three years ago, pay-per-play gaming reached $137m in 2003 and is forecast to grow by 40% to 2007. The report suggest that the total online PC games market will top $1.1bn in the West in 2004 and reach $2.2bn by 2007. Source: Screen Digest