A review of Nielsen’s Video Game Tracking data (tabulated weekly since July 2005) for the Madden football franchise reaffirms that Madden is a household name among active gamers like AAA brands such as Halo, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Mario. August usually belongs to Madden, with few other notable titles released during this time. Below are insights into this year’s iteration, Madden NFL 10.
- Madden NFL 10 dominates the sports genre in several metrics, including unaided and aided awareness and definite purchase interest among active gamers.
| Key Metrics for Select Sports Genre Games 1 Week Prior to Release |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Un-Aided Awareness |
Aided Awareness | Def Purchase
Interest |
| Madden NFL 10 | 14% | 66% | 21% |
| NBA Live 09 | 3% | 49% | 11% |
| Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 | 2% | 44% | 10% |
| NASCAR 09 | 2% | 43% | 9% |
| NBA 2K9 | 2% | 43% | 10% |
| FIFA Soccer 09 | 2% | 38% | 5% |
| MLB 09: The Show | 1% | 41% | 11% |
| NHL 09 | 1% | 38% | 6% |
| NHL 2K9 | 1% | 31% | 5% |
| Source: The Nielsen Company |
- Unaided awareness for Madden NFL 10 for the week of August 2nd is a very robust 14% overall and a whopping 31% among Males 18 to 24. The next highest title mentioned during the same time period, Wii Sports Resort (released July 26), has roughly half the unaided awareness among active gamers (8%).
Platform Preference & Age Differences
- In terms of platform preference, 30% of over 9,200 gamers interested in purchasing Madden NFL 10 indicate Xbox 360 as their system of choice. This outpaces PS3 (23%), PS2 (20%) and Wii (17%).
- In terms of age, younger gamers (13 to 24) over-index for the Xbox 360 version, with the PS3 skewing older (18 to 34). Gamers 35 to 54 indicate Wii as their preferred platform (24%) just above Xbox 360 (23%), PS2 (22%) and PS3 (19%).
- Among the always desirable male 18 to 24 gamers, Xbox 360 had the highest platform choice for Madden NFL 10 at 42%, with PS3 (28%) and PS2 (15%) following behind.
Purchase Urgency – Some like it hot… (off the presses)
- 22% of gamers interested in purchasing Madden NFL 10 indicate they would either pre-order the game or buy it during the first week of its release. Another 29% indicated they would buy it in new condition after the first week of release, showing that over 50% of interested gamers have a high urgency to purchase the game early.
