MTV Reports Double Digit Growth For Casual Portals

Nickelodeon MTV Kids, new owners of AddictingGames and Shockwave.com, have announced that both sites have experienced respective growth of over 100 percent and 47 percent, as well as new advertising deals and Dave Williams as new senior vice president of the group. MTV, who acquired the sites in August of last year when it bought site founder Atom Entertainment for an estimated $200 million has said that both sites are experiencing double-digit growth month to month. March saw 14 percent growth for AddictingGames, up to 21.3 million unique visitors, and page views up 17 percent to 343 million, while Shockwave saw 14 percent growth to 19.7 million visitors and 15 percent growth in page views to nearly 117 million. The company has said that AddictingGames is receiving more than 50 new game submissions a week from "more than 1,000 young game creators" with popular viral topical games including Zidane Head Butt and Bush Backrub. Shockwave has also seen a number of new "runaway hit" online game franchises such as Sewer Run I & II and Carrie the Caregiver finding a receptive audience of "kids, teens, and the rapidly expanding female gaming audience." Dave Williams, who joined Atom as CMO and general manager before the MTV acquisition has been named as the group's senior vice president. Prior to his new role, he served as VP of product management for Listen.com, overseeing the development of its Rhapsody service, and was general manager of music products with Real Networks. Finally, the company announced that the ad campaigns for the two sites, with video ad click-through rates exceeding 10 percent on average, will see two new interactive Mother's Day themed pushes from both Nissan and HP. Said Williams, "The online games business continues to thrive and I'm excited to help drive continued expansion across the Shockwave.com and AddictingGames brands to reach a huge audience of online and casual games fans. Both sites have such huge potential, and new opportunities with Nickelodeon MTVN Kids and Family Group make it possible to do so much more than when we were an independent company."