Republished from EMarketer.com Free Newsletter

Free online gaming sites are more popular than ever. And that could be a boon for advertisers.

Such sites racked up 27% more unique visits and 42% more total playing time in December 2008 than in December 2007, according to comScore. Overall Internet traffic grew only 4% over the same period, the research company said.

This uptake could be a result of the poor economy or simply the fact that more consumers are indulging in casual gaming.

“comScore’s measurements highlight the ongoing shift from high-cost, console-based gaming toward free, browser-based alternatives,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst. “This trend has been underway for some time, but the economic crisis has accelerated it. Given current economic and consumer behavior patterns, we expect to see ad-supported, casual games continue on an upward trajectory in 2009.”

In 2008 MTV Networks surveyed free online gamers regarding the types of advertising they were willing to accept in exchange for playing such games. Banner ads and advertiser-sponsored games got the highest responses, at 47% and 42%, respectively.

comScore also found that the total number of display ad views in the online gaming category grew 29% from November 2007 to November 2008, to 8.6 billion. This increase is attributed primarily to the growing number of advertising-exposed unique visitors to the category, which were up 30% over the same period.

The average consumer’s exposure remained relatively constant at 127 ad views in November 2008. The survey also found the number of display ads per page viewed declined 17%.

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