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Yesterday we released the Q4 2011 Universe chart along with updated market numbers. Extracted from this analysis, here are the top 15 virtual worlds for under 25′s by total cumulative registered accounts.

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The release of our Q4 2011 data headlined with total cumulative registered accounts reaching 1.7bn (read that post here). Here, we’re showing a segment from the Universe chart for virtual worlds with an average user age between 10 and 15. This age segment is the largest in the sector, closing with 787m registered accounts as at Q4 2011. Here’s the segment.

Stardoll and Club Penguin are the leaders in this age segment both with 150m registered accounts. Following up behind these two are Moshi Monsters and Neopets with circa 70m each.

Looking at virtual worlds with a heavy focus on user generated content, Roblox and Minecraft reside within this age segment with 3m and 18m users respectively. Expect these worlds to post significant increases in users during 2012. Of course, we’ll be following their progress.

Our Facebook page has the full set of Universe charts and you can order the full KZero Universe chart presentation with high-res imagery can be here.

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Strong growth in the virtual worlds sector throughout 2011 saw total cumulative registered accounts reach 1,772m at the end of Q4 2011. This growth was driven by booming user bases from worlds such as Poptropica, Habbo, Moshi Monsters, Stardoll and Club Penguin.

Encouragingly, whilst the top-tier larger worlds (with over 50m registered users) continue to attract users and leverage their brands, mid-tier worlds (10m to 50m registered users) such as Bin Weevils, Wizard 101, Minecraft, Meez and Fantage also posted positive increases.

The table below shows quarterly numbers by major age range.

From Q3 to Q4 2011, total cumulative registered accounts grew by 282m (an 18.9% quarter on quarter increase), compared to a 141m increase in users from Q2 to Q3 (a 10.4% increase).

The 10 to 15 year old segment continues to set the pace in the space, closing with 787m total cumulative registered accounts in Q4 2011, with the 15 to 25 year old (average user age) element coming in second highest with 596m total accounts.

The chart below shows total cumulative registered accounts by major age range.

We’ll be posting the Universe chart segments on here very shortly, but in the meantime you can get a sneak peak over on our Facebook page.

The full KZero Universe chart presentation with high-res imagery can be ordered here.

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Following the trend to link toys and virtual worlds together, here’s a new example of exactly that called Mechatars.

Created by a company called ILoveRobots, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, Mechatars is a toy line consisting of three different robots (Alpha, Wrexx and Kodar). The price point is $39.99. And, clearly the company is keen to promote the different ‘attitudes’ of each toy because they even have their own twitter accounts.

Accompanying the physical toy range is a virtual world called the Mechaverse. Progression through levelling within the virtual world opens up and enables additional features from the real world toy. CEO Martin Hitch states:

“We’re the first company that has successfully connected physical products with virtual environments,” he said. “We’re the first company that has been able to make our product evolve over time.”

The play mechanic is primarily ‘battling and fighting’, similar to UK property Fight My Monster. Here’s one of their launch videos and a link to the full press release.

Our latest report – The Golden Triangle, explains the opportunties available for toys and virtual worlds. Here’s an extract from the report highlighting the strategies.

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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominees have just been announced. Looking through the Children’s Awards Nominees highlights both the growing popularity of virtual worlds as well as the emerging trend to tie film and TV properties into them.

In the Animation category, Muddle Earth from CBBC is nominated. This property has an accompanying virtual world created by Dubit.

In the Comedy category, Horrible Histories is nominated, which also has a virtual world.

In the Feature Film category, Harry Potter and Kung Fu Panda are in the running, with the latter prepping Pottermore for launch and the former already with a virtual world in the market.

In the Interactive category Mindy Candy are short-listed for Moshi Monsters.

There’s also a special Kid’s Vote BAFTA award.

Within this award section Cars 2, Harry Potter, Kung Fu Panda and Transformers feature in the Film category. Cars has an accompanying world called World of Cars and there’s a Transformers Universe MMO in the works being developed by Jagex.

In the Web section we’re delighted to see two of our clients, Bin Weevils and Stardoll nominated alongside Club Penguin and Moshi Monsters.

The British Academy Children’s Awards will take place on Sunday 27 November. Let the voting battles commence!

Our latest report, The Golden Triangle, explains the strategies available to IP owners in the kids TV and Movie sectors. Order it here.

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Our latest report, The Golden Triangle is now available on Slideshare.

This report explains and positions the opportunities available to IP owners in the toys/games and tv/movie sectors with respect to virtual world integration. The full high-res report can be ordered here

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Following on from a recent client request to see virtual world registered accounts by major region, here’s a quick chart visualising the findings.

The data is based on cumulative registered account data from Q2 2011 and clearly shows the dominance of Western Europe and North America. Keep an eye on South America and Eastern Europe though, with Brazil and Turkey (classified into Eastern Europe) on the rise.

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Lot’s of newsflow in the last couple of days about Lady Gaga gaining an injunction against Mind Candy, owners of Moshi Monsters.

Moshi developed a character called Lady Goo Goo and placed songs onto YouTube, with plans to release a song on iTunes via their new music division Moshi Music. Here’s the news report.

Unofficial re-creations of brands inside virtual worlds are nothing new. Back in 2008 we identified this trend – primarily inside Second Life with residents (as opposed to Linden Lab) creating and in a lot of cases actually selling these virtual goods. Furthermore, the concept of users re-creating music videos as machinima is another interesting topic.

This case is slightly different because it’s the virtual world company itself creating the unofficial brand as opposed to the users – but it seems the Moshi users really love the character.

In response to the trend of unofficial brands and virtual goods, we developed the ’5 Rules of Virtual Brand Management’ back in 2008. It’s a set of principles that brand owners should consider before taking action. Perhaps Lady Gaga should have read this first. The full report can be ordered here and shown below is a quick summary presentation.

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We’ve just released our latest report called ‘Toys, Media and Virtual Worlds – Creating the Golden Triangle’.

The report, in presentation format, aims to provide professionals in the toys, games, TV and movie sectors with guidance and insight into the key opportunities and strategies available in the virtual worlds sector.

Importantly, it also recommends how to align all three elements into a cohesive community building and revenue generating platform.

Areas covered include branded virtual goods inclusion, community and awareness building, research and development, character development and many others.

Also included in the report are examples of projects deployed to date. The free report can be requested here.

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