What do Google (GOOG) searches and video games sales have in
common? More than we thought. According to a report called “Understanding the
Modern Gamer,” there is a lot of insight ongame sales that can be gleaned from video
game-related searches. For example, using tracked search data from 2010 and 2011, the white paper
reveals that “if a game accrues 250,000 clicks in the 10 months around
launch, it will likely sell between 2 and 4 million units in
the first four months after release.” The report claims it can predict 84% of
game sale just from using Google searches.
In addition to
predictive sales data, the analysis also says that 27% of game-related searches
— for pre-orders, trailers, DLC, strategies, cheats, etc. — are performed on
mobile devices, which means engaging gamers with related mobile applications is
growing in importance.
By studying search
data, publishers and their marketing/public relations teams can devise a
strategy to properly guide a game to success. As shown below, important searches differ during different periods, from
pre-launch to during launch to
post-launch. So if you’ve ever wondered why media are drip-fed only a handful
of screenshots for a new game at certain times, this type of data is the
reason.
[Via Destructoid]
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