Latest XboxLive statistics (2002-now)

[EndR]

http://www.majornelson.com/2006/03/24/latest-xbox-live-statistics/
(more info on the site)

XboxLive connectivity and usage:

Since Xbox Live’s online gaming network launched in November 2002, gamers have spent over 1.5 billion hours on the network playing games online with their friends around the world. This is equal to 65 million days of gaming or close to 200,000 years. With our top title, Halo 2, which is being played on both the Xbox and Xbox 360, gamers have spent over 500 million hours playing online.

Today over half of all Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide are already connected to Xbox Live. This is a significant leap over the nearly-one-in-10 consoles that were connected to Xbox Live on the first generation of Xbox.

XboxLive marketplace:

Consumers have quickly jumped to the Xbox Live Marketplace as their one-stop download center. In fact, over 85% of connected Xbox 360 consoles have already downloaded content from Xbox Live Marketplace.

We have already had over 10 million downloads on Marketplace in the first 4 months on the market, reaching this milestone faster than iTunes did when it launched. Playable game demos remain the most popular item with over half of our consumers downloading these.

XboxLive Arcade:

Xbox Live Arcade has been an instant hit on the Xbox 360, with over 60% of all connected consoles already downloading and playing Xbox Live Arcade titles.

Every Xbox Live Arcade title has a free trial version. To-date, we are seeing on average 20% trial to purchase conversion rates across all Arcade titles, with our top title converting at 39%.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Since Xbox Live’s online gaming network launched in November 2002, gamers have spent over 1.5 billion hours on the network playing games online with their friends around the world. This is equal to 65 million days of gaming or close to 200,000 years.

Wow, mindless numbers come of age. 200,000 years spent on Live! ?

The only number that'd interest me is how many people are online gaming? I've always wondered if that'd ever become more than a niche. Unfortunately the stats given aren't helpful in this regard...

Today over half of all Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide are already connected to Xbox Live. This is a significant leap over the nearly-one-in-10 consoles that were connected to Xbox Live on the first generation of Xbox.

The 1 in 10 figure were all people playing online games. This 1 in 2 for XBLive! could be just downloading. The fact these machines are connected to the internet doesn't show they're gaming, and the fact half the XB360 owners aren't downloading free content strikes me as surprising! Also what percentage of these online gamers were gaming on XB and are early adopters, moving their online gaming to the next platform? Even if 50% of the current user base are online gamers, we can't extrapolate from that that 50% will always be gamers.

So really we just have numbers without much useful information, and without shedding any light on the growth (or lack thereof) of online gaming. The only useful figure to my mind is the Arcade details. They provide some stats that should help determine takings forArcade developers.

 

[dukmahsik]

wow those are great numbers, a big jump from xbox 1

"Today over half of all Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide are already connected to Xbox Live. This is a significant leap over the nearly-one-in-10 consoles that were connected to Xbox Live on the first generation of Xbox."

 

[Sis]

So really we just have numbers without much useful information, and without shedding any light on the growth (or lack thereof) of online gaming. The only useful figure to my mind is the Arcade details. They provide some stats that should help determine takings forArcade developers.

And if you do the math, it isn't a huge leap over the original Xbox:

Original Xbox 10%
Xbox 360: (Total User Base * .5) * .6 = 30% (this figure accounts only for those who play online and thus bought the Xbox Live account)

Which, given the hard core early adopter market, it's difficult to say if that is a real number (as you say in your post).

It is still impressive, but they are definitely playing with math. They say they reached the 10 million download mark faster than iTunes? But doesn't iTunes have a $1 price point on every download? So it would make the comparison specious at best...

Still, I'm a big believer in Xbox Live, particularly the Arcade, and I expect continued growth and excitement there.

EDIT: Nevermind on the Xbox Live online numbers--I misread " over 60% of all connected consoles already downloading and playing Xbox Live Arcade titles" as "60% playing games online". Need more coffee.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

wow those are great numbers, a big jump from xbox 1

"Today over half of all Xbox 360 consoles sold worldwide are already connected to Xbox Live. This is a significant leap over the nearly-one-in-10 consoles that were connected to Xbox Live on the first generation of Xbox."

For XB1 you had to pay to go online. XB360 has free online in Silver, so for no money you can go online and get upgrades and stuff. Why wouldn't you? Now if of those 50%, all of them are going online to play games, yes it's a big percentage increase. Are they the same gamers that already paid for XBLive! on XB1 though?

Putting it another way, 10% of 20+ million XB owners is about 2 million online. 50% of XB360s, 3 million worldwide, = 1.5 million. Are those 1.5 million XB360 owners on Live all upgraded XB customers? If they are, this figures represent no increase in Live online gaming from XB, and the next 10 million XB360 customers might be the less 'hardcore' XB owners, the 90% who don't game online, who don't care to online-game on XB360 either.

 

[dukmahsik]

im sure everyone who bought a 360 was a prior xbox owner!

 

[NavNucST3]

For XB1 you had to pay to go online. XB360 has free online in Silver, so for no money you can go online and get upgrades and stuff. Why wouldn't you? Now if of those 50%, all of them are going online to play games, yes it's a big percentage increase. Are they the same gamers that already paid for XBLive! on XB1 though?

Putting it another way, 10% of 20+ million XB owners is about 2 million online. 50% of XB360s, 3 million worldwide, = 1.5 million. Are those 1.5 million XB360 owners on Live all upgraded XB customers? If they are, this figures represent no increase in Live online gaming from XB, and the next 10 million XB360 customers might be the less 'hardcore' XB owners, the 90% who don't game online, who don't care to online-game on XB360 either.

I am not an upgraded Live customer, I am a former Xbox customer, but the 360 is the first time I have gone online. The same holds true for the rest of my family, actually, they never owned Xbox until now. edit: I was off

 

[Legend]

can someone make an estimate as to how much of the time they have given for online use is dedicated to Halo?

 

[Tap In]

well skewed statistics or not , it bodes well for MS's vision of the future of online play.

I think by the end of this generation (especially with SONY soon to be mimicking LIVE) we will see an extreme upward trend of those playing online. The easier they make it, the more people will do it.

Trying to downplay these statistics is trying to fend off the inevitable IMO.

 

[Serenity Painted Death]

I'd really love to see the "total hours" played for games like Everquest and WoW.

Actually, no... so much wasted potential

 

[nintenho]

I think by the end of this generation (especially with SONY soon to be mimicking LIVE) we will see an extreme upward trend of those playing online. The easier they make it, the more people will do it.

Trying to downplay these statistics is trying to fend off the inevitable IMO.

I really dunno if it's going to go up, next-gen consoles can't use dial-up...

 

[breez]

I really dunno if it's going to go up, next-gen consoles can't use dial-up...

Who uses dial-up today? Or at the end of this generation which is 4-5 years away?

 

[nintenho]

Who uses dial-up today? Or at the end of this generation which is 4-5 years away?

Um...a certain country in North America.....

 

[breez]

Um...a certain country in North America.....

Looks like you're somewhat right.

Two-thirds of U.S. on broadband

But with the current rate of adaption I imagine there will only be a pretty small minority of dial-up users in a few years.

 

[goonergaz]

OK, a few things.

Firstly, as stated most 'early adopters' were bound to go online (for several reasons):

1) Premiums came with free online for 1 mth
2) Most were 'carrying over' accounts
3) If you want BC & other updates you need to d/l it!
4) Most early adopters have the money/desire to play that way

Now let's take a negative spin:

Only around 3% of gamers (console owning total) play online. Now as MS have such a high % of their X360 owners online what does that say? Well to me it says this "nothing has changed", MS are still selling to the hard core gamers and failing to reach the mass-market of gamers who are OFF LINE!

I'd actually be more impressed if the online figures were LOWER, showing more casual gamers (mass market) are buying the console.

Just my opinion mind...for what it's worth

edit to clarify: I don't think that 'all of a sudden' a massive % of gamers will play online (which in a way MS are trying to say is happening)...I only expect about 10-15% of gamers this gen to be playing online...therefore they need to target off line gamers more as it's a bigger market!

 

[Phil]

This weekend, I was itching to play Ratchet & Clank 3 (on PS2) online with my sister. In fact, I promised to hook-up everything for her so she could have a go and play 'her favorite game' against other people outthere... to my surprise, she was very reluctant and didn't show any interest at all. While I can't share her zero interest on online-gaming, seems to me (as do the Xbox live numbers indicate) that online-gaming still remains a niche with more casual players. I really do wonder if that is changing with next-generation consoles or if it still remains a niche. Hmm...

 

[goonergaz]

I really do wonder if that is changing with next-generation consoles or if it still remains a niche. Hmm...

still a niche mate, and will be for a while yet (probably until next gen after this - then we might see a 'significant' % of gamers online)...a big problem online is that unless you play all the time it's hard to build up any sort of real 'friends' system. Also too many still don't talk/use a heatset online - so you can't build up friendships very easily.

in fact I have about 50-60 odd people in my list, but only ever around 5 are online...and even then I can't remember who's who - just that I played them at some point and added them as a friend as I had a good game...in between tho we still have cheats and the like who ruin the experience.

edit: it's why I think Sony aren't losing too much sleep over their 'live' this generation - for me if they can get something half decent this time and then get it spot on next then no-one will care about MS and how good their 'live' is (expect the real hardcore gamers (<10%)).

 

[Dave Baumann]

...a big problem online is that unless you play all the time it's hard to build up any sort of real 'friends' system. Also too many still don't talk/use a heatset online - so you can't build up friendships very easily.

I don't veiw that as an issue - I've played online frequently with PGR3 and DOA4, but I've never actually played with a "friend" yet. Just joining in matches and having a quick play is easy enough - I do this when I just want a quick blast rather than playing the single races / bouts or something like that.

 

[goonergaz]

Just joining in matches and having a quick play is easy enough - I do this when I just want a quick blast rather than playing the single races / bouts or something like that.

I used to agree, I used to play PES online for the odd quick game...however I'd often (sometimes seveal times in a row) find people who do one of the following:

'Cheat'
Switch off during a game
Cause lag

All these things ruin the game for me and (frankly) I'd rather play against the AI when I only have time for a couple of matches than play Russian Roulette (sp?) on live - it just got too frustrating in the end...hence I prefered to try and build up a friends list :|

 

[Dave Baumann]

Have you come across any cheats on XBox Live?