Google trends fun and games

Google Trends is brilliant for seeing how well a brand is doing out there on the interweb and thus in the real world.

Here is a traditional publisher going steadily downhill (Sega) compared with an online game on the up (Habbo). As you can see Habbo overtook Sega at the beginning of 2005 and now has several times the online search presence.


The two biggest publishers in the world, Electronic Arts and Activision, are both steadily going downhill, with Activision slightly ahead most of the time.
In casual gaming Miniclip are on the up, as are Big Fish. But compare the two to see the real story!


Comparing three of the biggest games, Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Forza. Notice that Forza is well behind in search and well ahead in news. Is their marketing department outperforming?


To show just what people care about in the world here is Afghanistan compared with Wii! Afgahanistan is well ahead in news but nowhere when it come to what people are searching for.


And, we have Operation Flashpoint compared with Call of Duty.


Android has come from nowhere and is a rapidly rising star, it has already overtaken the downhill path of Zune. But bring iPhone into the picture and you see who really is the daddy. Compare Apple with Microsoft and you can see a crossing trend, it is not only Zune that has a problem in Redmond. Add in Google (a bit unfair) and see who own the web!


Whilst on the subject of Microsoft, how about a comparison with Sony and Nintendo. Now that is interesting, two on the way down, one on the way up but still well behind. Notice the pre Christmas bumps in activity for all three. And how the Nintendo bump was smaller in Q4 ‘08 than in the previous two years, whilst Microsoft had a negative bump! You can see a lot in these little graphs.


Look at E3 and you can see how badly they screwed up in ‘07 and ‘08 and just how much they got back in ‘09


You can do it with people too. Looking at John Riccitiello and Bobby Kotick it looks like one has replaced the other! But add in Bill Gates and you can see the power of a real celebrity. And let’s see who the public are interested in at Nintendo out of Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Gunpei Yokoi and Hiroshi Yamauchi.


Now here is a little shocker for you, smartphone plotted with netbook. That surprised you, didn’t it? Maybe it tells you which horse to put your money on.


MMORPG Vs FPS shows them both on the up with a clear leader which is having a current surge. And once again you can clearly see the Q4 blips.