Yesterday I was in Beijing and did not find the time to blog about this when it was announced to the press, but Spil Games is now the world’s largest casual game portal worldwide. From the number 5 position one year ago, Spil Games now passed among others Yahoo Games and MSN Games to finish number 1 at the end of 2008. I am very proud to be part of the Spil Games team and of the dedication and hard work of all Spil’s employees to reach this major milestone!
The official press release:
SPIL GAMES, the world’s ultimate online game destination, confirmed today that it has become the largest casual game portal network worldwide based on results from the latest comScore Media Metrix assessment. According to recent reports, SPIL GAMES’ worldwide traffic grew 75% in 2008, bringing its casual game portal network worldwide ranking from the #5 position in early 2008 to the #1 position at close of the year. SPIL GAMES surpassed other top online game portals as the leading dedicated destination network for casual games. SPIL GAMES also reports a 269% increase in traffic in the United States as well as a global revenue growth of 125% in 2008.
“We are particularly proud of reaching the number one ranking in casual game portal networks worldwide. SPIL GAMES is a stand-alone, fully-dedicated and independent portal network, while competitors like Yahoo! Games and MSN Games are general portals with a channel for casual games. And, over the last year, we’ve been dedicated to growing our audience through a strategy focused on providing quality, fun-to-play, localized, and segmented portals,” said Peter Driessen, CEO of SPIL GAMES.
In addition to substantial traffic growth in the United States, SPIL GAMES saw increases in traffic in many other territories in its network of casual game portals last year: year-over-year traffic grew 113% in the United Kingdom, 52% in France, and 19% in Germany. In addition, SPIL GAMES finished the fourth quarter of 2008 with stronger-than-ever revenues. While the greatest concentrations of advertising revenue stream from the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and France, SPIL GAMES works closely with advertising partners all around the world to develop advertising solutions and provide advergame seeding that reaches specific segments on its portals, making it not only the ultimate online destination for gamers, but for advertisers seeking the captivated attention of this valuable market as well.
For more information about SPIL GAMES, visit www.spilgames.com.
#1 for traffic, but what about revenue? Allow me to be incredibly skeptical. (and of course I know you won’t disclose figures, but I think we both know… )
We indeed don’t disclose figures (and certainly not to an anonymous commenter on my blog), but I think you’ll be surprised if they eventually should be disclosed. If you look at some of our competitors that do disclose their revenue, you will see that online games are a very interesting industry to be in right now.
No problem to be skeptical, a lot of people I know are often skeptical – and that’s why most never start a company! I am happy about that actually, if everybody would have the same mindset life would be boring.
congratulations! Great to hear that a Dutch company is so successful internationally!
Just recently Spil Games has even made it into my home… my roommates are both playing some games daily!
A great achievement, congrats to everyone for the results!
I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Ann
http://racingonlinegames.net