US: Casual up, consoles down

New data from metrix specialist comScore has shown that the number of people playing online casual games in the US was up by 22 per cent annually in May – a stat that’s in stark contrast to the mass market losses seen in the console sector.

Venturebeat reports that over 87m people in the US played casual games in the month – around half the total number of internet users in the territory. However, last month NPD reported that core games revenue was down 23 per cent year-on-year in the US.



Of the casual portals monitored, Yahoo! Games emerged as the most popular ahead of the likes of EA, Nickelodeon, WildTangent and Disney. comScore added that online games are growing ten times faster than the overall population of the US.



Is this all a concrete indicator of a shift in power in the games industry? Or is it simply a reflection of the current sparse console release schedules and wallet-tightening on the High Street?

Story originally published on CasualGaming.biz