U.S. Gaming Trends Report

GAMING TRENDS 2015 ADOBE DIGITAL INDEX

Table of contents Report

03 Key insights

04 Gaming visits on the rise

05 E3 expo spurs growth, and strong social engagement

06 Pre-Orders increasing pressure on developers to deliver

07 Games generating more blockbusters than movies? 08 Is VR really the next big thing?

09 Apple sets sights on younger gamers

10 eSports overtake traditional sports

ADOBE DIGITAL INDEX | Gaming Trends 2015 2

Appendix

11 Methodology

12 Glossary

13 Tables

Examining insights around the Gaming Trends in 2015. Analytics

• Gaming visits are up 8% year-over-year, tablets visits are up 23% year-over-year.

• Gaming revenue reaches near holiday number in June, just 13% shy.

• Gaming revenue is up 4% year-over-year.

• Major game titles orders are up 24%, and revenue is up 33%.

Social

• Video Games social mentions on release day are nearly double that of blockbuster movies.

• Facebook's Oculus takes 62% of Q3 VR device social mentions.

• Gaming was only 4% of Apple TV's Sept 9th announcement Social Mentions, Siri and iPad Pro took the lions share.

• Guitar Hero Live (32%) and Crossy Road (26%) received the most social mentions of the game titles mentioned announcement day.

• MOBA's have surpassed the NFL, NHL, MLB in Facebook Official Page Likes.

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Key insights

ADOBE DIGITAL INDEX | Gaming Trends 2015

Gaming visits on the rise Gaming visits are up 8% year-over-year as of August, tablet visits are up 23%.

Higher powered tablets are freeing gamers from a desktop only experience.

4 ADOBE DIGITAL INDEX | Gaming Trends 2015

E3 expo spurs growth, and strong social engagement Gaming revenue generated from E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in June, was only 13% shy of November 2014 (holiday shopping.)

Comparing August 2014 to 2015, revenue is up 4%.

E3 generated 3.5M social engagements (6/14-6/18).


Pre-Orders increasing pressure on developers to deliver ADI compared 5 major game titles of 2014, to the 2015 titles (June–August).

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2014 Destiny

COD: Advanced Warfare

Halo: Master Chief Collection

Assassin’s Creed Unity

Far Cry 4

2015 Call of Duty: Black Ops 3

Fallout 4

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Halo 5: Guardians

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 lead pre-orders this year, followed by Fallout 4.


Games generating more blockbusters than movies? Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain sold just over 179M in revenue its first day.

The highest grossing movie (of all time) in terms of opening day revenue, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 brought in 91M.

7

Budget 250M

80M

Opening Day (Globally)

84M

179M

Over/Under Opening Day

(156M)

99M

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Metal Gear Solid V


Is VR really the next big thing? Microsoft’s Hololens is focused on bringing gaming into reality. The HTC Vive, Sony Morpheus & Facebook's Oculus are all aimed at immersing you in a virtual world.

VR devices have not hit the retail market yet, but they are gaining ground socially.


Apple sets sights on younger gamers Apple is aiming to bring gaming apps to the small screen. We analyzed the Sept 9th announcement mentions, and found that the term “gaming” took 4% of social buzz.

Guitar Hero Live received the most mentions (32%) of all the titles that were mentioned during Apples announcement, Crossy Road (26%) nipping at the heels in second.

Skylanders and Disney Infinity both carry an ESRB Rating of “Everyone 10+”, Crossy Road an E rating, and Guitar Hero Live a Teen rating, which is generally suited for ages 13+.


eSports overtake traditional sports The monthly players of League Of Legends would fill the Dallas Cowboys stadium 603 times over, the monthly players of DOTA 2 100 times over.

I hope people car pool!

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Game League of Legends

DOTA 2

Unique Players 67M

11M


The average age of the top MOBA's is only 3 years (League of Legends, DOTA 2, Smite, and Heroes of the Storm.) Each title is free-to-play, but have their own nuances, For example:

DOTA 2 gives you access to all 110 Heroes for free. Smite expanded game play to consoles this year.

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ADOBE DIGITAL INDEX

Methodology Based on consumer data comprising of 4B+ global visits between 2014 and 2015. Composed of aggregated and anonymous data from visits to websites in multiple industries and segments.

Report based on (20)+ million engagements (mentions, likes, shares, “official” page likes and followers.) Blogs, Facebook, G+, Reddit, Twitter, Dailymotion, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr, VK, Disqus, Foursquare, Metacafe, Wordpress, and YouTube. Social engagements is publically available based on a aggregate total.

Data from Adobe Marketing Cloud Solutions leveraged: Adobe Social, Adobe Analytics.

Visit our website: adobe.ly/digitalindex

Read our blog: adobe.ly/digitalindex

Follow us: @adobeindex

Ask a question or make a suggestion: [email protected]


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• Gaming: Web related visits and revenue related to gaming websites.• MOBA: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.• Pre-Order: Purchasing a game prior to it's release.• VR: Virtual Reality.• E3: Electronic Entertainment Expo.• Social Mentions: The volume of comments, from a particular word or phrase.• eSports: Competitive video game tournaments.


ADOBE DIGITAL INDEX

Glossary


ADOBE DIGITAL INDEX Tables

Gaming visits by device Jun-14 Jul-14 Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15

Smartphone 100.00% 95% 104% 112% 109% 101% 82% 91% 107% 96% 106% 117% 101% 101% 94% Desktop 100.00% 103% 109% 105% 103% 96% 85% 94% 112% 110% 116% 115% 116% 110% 118% Tablets 100.00% 93% 96% 113% 114% 103% 92% 100% 117% 112% 126% 130% 129% 121% 119% Average 100.00% 97% 103% 110% 109% 100% 86% 95% 112% 106% 116% 121% 115% 111% 111%

Gaming revenue growth Jun-14 Jul-14 Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15

Revenue 100.00% 118% 148% 132% 121% 175% 151% 147% 142% 136% 100% 121% 163% 110% 151%

Major game titles pre-orders 2014 2015

Orders 100% 124% Revenue 100% 133%

Social emotions around pre-orders

Joy 18% Admiration 18% Fear 1% Surprise 9% Sadness 33% Disgust 16% Anger 3% Anticipation 2%

Social mentions on release day

Avengers: Age of Ultron 41,326 Metal gear solid V 78,684

VR device social mentions Mentions

July 209,599 August 225,813 September 364,021


ADOBE DIGITAL INDEX Tables

Q3 VR device share of social mentions Mentions

Facebook’s Oculus 62% HTC Vive 2% Sony Morpheus 14% Microsoft Hololens 22%

Apple TV announcement social mentions

Gaming 4% iPad Pro 14% iPhone 6S 5% Siri 11% App 9% Remote 6% Watch 5% Live Tv 4% iOS 3% Pencil 2% Upgrade 1% Other 28%

Apple TV share of game social mentions

Skylanders 5% Disney 17% Guitar Hero Live 32% Beat Sports 11% Geometry Wars 3% Rayman 7% Crossy Road 26%

How MOBA’s measure up to traditional sports Facebook Likes 30 Day Avg Mentions

MOBA 18,953,910 944,813 NFL 12,374,729 7,393,000 NBA 27,360,686 2,888,497 NHL 3,843,682 3,843,682 MLB 6,261,371 6,261,371

U.S. Gaming Trends Report

Marketing

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