Overview

The Flash Games Market Survey was created by Mochi Media in partnership with other members of the Flash games community. 

The goal of the survey is to capture and publish the first ever census on the state of the Flash games developer industry. To administer the survey, Mochi Media partnered with Adobe, FlashGameLicense, JayIsGames and NewGrounds to administer the survey which received over 1,104 completed responses.

Executive Summary

Despite its rapid growth in recent years, limited research has been done and little comprehensive data is available about the Flash gaming market. Today, the developers, publishers and supporting companies in the industry largely operate on assumptions, interpretation of their own data, or general metrics from outside services such as comScore and other syndicated measurement services.

To raise awareness for key issues facing the Flash Games Market and shed light on the trends and developments that will shape its next phase of growth, Mochi Media, in partnership with Adobe, Newgrounds, FlashGameLicense.com and JayIsGames, conducted the industry's first benchmark study of the Flash gaming industry.

Mochi Media surveyed more than 1,100 Flash game developers and content publishers over the course of three months earlier this year to better understand the demographics, location and economics of Flash game developers and publishers. The goal of the study was to segment the game developer market and create a series of profiles and benchmarks which could be measured against as the industry evolves.   

The Flash Games Market Survey paints a picture of an industry that, while still nascent in some ways, is growing exponentially in reach, and advancing technologically and creatively. The study also highlights that while flash gaming is smaller than other creative publishing industries such as blogging, music, etc., in relative comparison the infrastructure for game development and monetization is more mature than its music and content publishing counterparts were at a similar stage in their growth.

The Market As We Knew It 

The most comprehensive data around the Flash games audience to date was published by ComScore in July 2009. The online measurement company announced that in May, online games attracted 87 million visitors in the United States, up 22 percent from 2008, while ComScore numbers from April provided to Mochi Media pegs the worldwide audience at nearly 1.1 billion monthly visitors. ComScore called online gaming, "one of the top gaining categories over the past year growing at ten times the rate of the total U.S. Internet population and reaching nearly one out of every two Internet users." By itself, Mochi Media had 91 million unique visitors worldwide, and 17 million U.S. visitors. Mochi Media serves games to more than 30,000 Web sites, with about 1 billion game plays per month. 

While the numbers around the financial aspects of the online games market are a bit murkier, research firm Markets and Research estimated that by 2013, the online games market will grow to $1.6 billion. 

Flash Games Market Survey Findings 

The Flash Games Market Survey of more than 1,1000 participants found a global developer community consisting primarily of hobbyists, but with a substantial number of success stories and a growing base of professionals who make a significant amount of money off of developing games. Highlights of the study include: 

• Developers are largely male (97 percent of respondents); come from all around the world (34 percent from U.S., 14 percent from U.K., 8 percent from Canada, 4 percent each from Australia and Russia, and the rest spread out around the world); and are often (37 percent) publishers as well as developers.
• More than one-third of developers work full-time making games; and 20 percent of all respondents make more than $1,000 per month off of their games. Five percent of developers make more than $5,000 per month, with 2 percent making more than $10,000 dollars.
• New talent is pouring into the Flash gaming market: Almost two-thirds of all developers responding started making games within the last two years, and three-quarters of publishers started their portals within the last two years.
• Multiple revenue streams; nearly one-third of developers are monetizing their games in four different ways, and half are using two;
• Ads in games is the most popular (58 percent) revenue stream, with sponsorship next (43 percent), followed by licensing (26 percent), ads on their Web site (20 percent), custom game development (20 percent), and micro-transactions (6 percent), though the study was conducted before Flash game micro-transaction platforms were released later in the year.

The study also found that most developers have made 1-5 games total (64 percent), while 13 percent have made more than 11 games.

Developers are also generally independent, with only 8 percent working at a studio or other game developmnent company.

The vast majority work on their games alone (60 percent), and a significant, but small number work in independent teams (29 percent).

Developers are also most comfortable with the technical aspect of making games, with 74 percent citing coding as their strongest aspect of developement and game design next at 66 percent. Most were less well-suited for the creative and business side of developement with 40 percent naming game art as thier strong suit, with business (partnerships, advertising, sponsorships) next (21 percent) and game music last (15 percent).

Game development cycles are considerably short, with almost half of developers building games in 1-3 months, and another 23 months building games in less than one month. Lastly most Flash game developers currently work exclusively on Flash, with a small number building on other platforms, but nearly one-third have aspirations of developing iPhone games.  

Detailed Survey Results