Data & Research

Bigger than Mario, Angry Birds generates 10% of gaming volume in UK

Putting Call of Duty and co. in the shade

Bigger than Mario, Angry Birds generates 10% of gaming volume in UK
Evidence of the reach of the biggest mobile franchises, numbers released by new data tracking survey GameTrack has proclaimed Angry Birds the most popular game series in the UK.

Rovio's monster topped its sweep of the market in Q1 2012, boasting a 10 percent share of 'gaming volume' across the country.

Game on

To put that figure in some context, that means Angry Birds is now technically more 'popular' with consumers than older, more established franchises such as Mario, Call of Duty and FIFA according to GameTrack's numbers.

As detailed by GamesIndustry.biz, in all 37 percent of UK citizens aged 6 and above claim to play games in some form a week, though the most active gamers are aged between 6 and 10, with 83 percent taking to gaming.

In that group, 31 percent claim to play packaged games, online titles or apps every week.

Top track

The stats are the first to be released by GameTrack, launched as a new data tracking tool by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe, or ISFE.

The project will be run by Ipsos MediaCT, with ISFE managing director Simon Little claiming the venture had been "instigated by games publishers."

"It has been scoped and developed with the assistance of the biggest names in the industry, with a clear eye on commercial relevance and the long term aim of becoming a standard reference," he concluded.

GameTrack will generate its findings from 2,000 surveys each every month – half of which will be face to face interviews, the other half filled in online - to provide quarterly analysis based on data pooled from a total of 6,000 surveys.

The initiative is currently focused on the UK, France, Germany and Spain, though the ISFE claims it will "add further markets in the near future."

[source: ISFE]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.