Nielsen (you know, that group that’s always going on about TV show ratings) is entering a new entertainment market.
The company revealed today that it is going to start gathering data and insight on mobile games. It’s calling the new program Mobile Game Tracking (MGT), and Nielsen will base it off of info gathered from a group of 1,200 mobile gamers each week. The mobile industry was worth $34.8 billion in 2015, according to market research firm Newzoo. Any data that shows which games are the most popular can help developers make more successful titles.
“In a rapidly changing mobile games market consumer behavior can often seem elusive and difficult to predict,” said Michael Flamberg, vice president and general manager of Games, Nielsen. “Nielsen Mobile Game Tracking allows developers to efficiently measure a mobile title’s potential, recognize strengths and weaknesses within the market, and to track their improvement over time. It’s an invaluable tool.”
While you can just look at app store rankings to see which games are most popular, more precise tracking can reveal information on specific demographics and the effectiveness of marketing. This also gives Nielsen a new market to work with as traditional TV continues to suffer from the wrath of cord-cutters.
Let’s just hope that, unlike TV, we don’t have to worry about bad Nielsen ratings canceling our favorite mobile games.