Electronic Arts, Red Dead Redemption are 'most traded' online
GaBoom stats give insight into market unmonitored by official channels
Games from Electronic Arts were the most traded amongst consumers last year, according to new data revealed from over 12,500 users of GaBoom.
Electronic Arts was a pioneer of the online pass, or Project $10 as it was first known, where second users of a game are required to pay for access to a title's multiplayer and other online features.
GaBoom is a peer-to-peer trading site where users pay a nominal fee to trade games amongst one another, with its stats showing that users are happy to pay additional fees to publishers on top of the swap.
According to the data, last year's most traded game was Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption, followed by Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mafia II, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
The stats, supplied to GamesIndustry.biz, show insight into patterns of the second hand and trading market, which official channels such as GfK Chart-Track in Europe and NPD in the US are unable to monitor. GaBoom is only one games trading site on the web, but it has a significant growing user base in the UK and plans to expand across Europe.
Games for the Xbox 360 proved to be the most popular during 2011, followed by PlayStation 3, Wii, PC and Nintendo's DS.
The second hand market is crucial to High Street retailers such as GAME, GameStation and HMV, as well as online stores which now offer their own take on the pre-owned market.
The full data follows:
Top 5 most traded publisher
- Electronic Arts
- Activision
- Sony
- Ubisoft
- Nintendo
Most popular format traded
- Xbox 360
- Playstation 3
- Wii
- PC
- DS
Top 5 most popular games
- Red Dead Redemption
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Mafia II
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2