Data reveals massive rise in free-to-play gaming

Free-to-play online games have witnessed some serious growth over the last couple of years, according to data from Pando Network's client base. Seventy million have used the service since 2009, and more than 38 million will use it in 2011 alone.

The number of people downloading free-to-play online games grew by 450% in the last three years.

Across the globe huge regional increases have been found with Europe leading with a growth of 1,025% since 2009. In the same time period Latin America grew by 595%, Japan by 392% and South Korea by 259%.

"While the media is saturated with stories about the rapid growth of social and casual games from the likes of Zynga and Rovio, the free-to-play MMO genre also continues to grow swiftly. It may get overshadowed by trendier genres, but our data shows that free-to-play MMOs are an increasingly significant presence in the game industry," said Pando Networks' CEO Robert Levitan.

"We expect continued robust growth as traditional game publishers move to full digital distribution and embrace the free-to-play model," he added.

The rise of gaming is leading to an increased use of gamification techniques by brands to engage consumers. Read about gamification tech start-up BigDoor's latest findings in a recent article by my colleague Kristina.

Tags: brand markeeting, digitial distribution, free-to-play, game industry, game publishing, gamification, gaming, infographic