LEADING ONLINE GAME PLAY STATISTICS ARE BACK - XFIRE UNLEASHES MAJOR XSTATICS UPDATE
January 2006 Through March 2007, 15 Months of Online Game Play Stats, Ten Months of Specific World of Warcraft® Stats And More
MENLO PARK, CA (April 12, 2007) - Xfire, one of the fastest growing online gaming communities in the world, released today their second monthly offering of authentic online game play statistics - Xstatics. The latest Xstatics update includes stats from January 2006 through March 2007, along with several brand new Bonus Stats. All told, the fifteen months available on Xstatics summarize over 92,000 man-years of game play data. The latest release of Xstatics is available now and can be viewed at www.xfire.com/xstatics
"Xfire is dedicated to providing the video game industry with up to date, authentic online game play statistics across more than 800 PC games," said Frederic Descamps, senior director of marketing for Xfire. "We enjoy coming up with our Bonus Stats to see how different cross-sections of gamers are playing their favorite online games. In this release of Xstatics, we have Bonus Stats showing ten months worth of World of Warcraft® data, the top ten games by number of screenshots and the top ten free-to-play online games."
The ten-month sample of World of Warcraft (WoW) statistics confirms some widely thought assumptions such as a spike in game play in February 2007 when the Burning Crusade expansion was released with Xfire users spending more than 430,000 man-hours per day in Azeroth. Over the course of the ten months, WoW usage by Xfire users increased by over eleven man-years per day.
In addition to the rise of WoW, an interesting phenomenon stands out: the prominence of free-to-play (F2P) Korean games. With games such as Silkroad Online, War Rock, MapleStory, Fly for Fun and KAL-Online holding down three of the top twenty games as well as four of the top ten MMO's in March of 2007, F2P Korean games have earned a solid share of Xfire users' play time. Given that over 95% of Xfire users are from North America or Europe, the continued success of these games illustrates the viability of the micro-transaction business model in these markets.
For more information on Xstatics visit: www.xfire.com/xstatics
About Xfire, Inc.
Xfire, Inc. one of the fastest growing online gaming platform and community in the world helping gamers to easily connect, chat and play with their friends online. Xfire is a free service that allows gamers to easily browse for game servers, chat with friends through IM and voice chat, as well as download the latest updates and additions to their favorite games. With more than six million members in over 100 countries, Xfire is an international community connecting gamers across the globe. Xfire is a wholly owned subsidiary of MTV Networks and is based in Menlo Park, CA.
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