Dutch online portal Spil Games has been in the news of late, demonstrating its commitment to open web standards on a couple of occasions.

First, it launched a range of dedicated HTML5 websites to liberate mobile gamers from browser compatibility issues, and then it ran a competition for developers of the web protocol to demonstrate the platform’s capabilities.

Spil(ling) the beans

Now, Spil Games has released a fascinating insight into casual gaming in its 2010 State of Gaming Report, drawing on data from comScore and analysis of its own 130 million monthly active unique users.

According to the research, 4 out of 10 internet users (translating to 510 million of 1.3 billion) are playing online games, highlighting the incredible appetite for this form of entertainment.

On just Spil Games’s channels themselves, which include games.co.uk and agame.com, 400 million games were played on average per month, with twice as many people enjoying its suite of sites than buying a console in 2010.

Coming of age

“This year we’ve really seen casual gaming come of age. We’ve pioneered the introduction of HTML5 as the technology of choice for mobile gaming, and we expect phenomenal growth in this sector in 2011,” said Oscar Diele, chief marketing officer of Spil Games.

“To think that five people a second are opening one of our games is, frankly, astonishing. It’s great to know that the entertainment we provide is reaching so many.”

Boys wil be boys

Global game behaviours of the casual online players were also revealed, as Europeans were found to favour racing and skill-based titles, while Americans prefer a quiz or three.

Of less surprise, perhaps, were the revelations that girls are fond of makeover, hairdressing, and horse-related frolics, and that boys tend to show off during chat filled gaming sessions.

When will they learn, eh?

[source: Spil Games]