Wizard101 Hits 20 Million Users

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BUSINESS: KingsIsle Entertainment’s kid-friendly game Wizard101 might not get as much buzz as older-skewing MMORPGs like Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. But users are paying attention.

Last week Wizard101 hit 20 million registered users, according to owner KingsIsle Entertainment, and the web-based game’s site had 12 million unique visitors (UVs) in June, which would put it among top 180 web sites in the U.S., as measured by ComScore. That’s 196% growth in UV’s year over year, according to the company.

Wizard101 tends to compete with other kid-friendly online games like Disney’s Club Penguin and Sony’s Free Realms.

KingsIsle VP and Wizard101 creator J. Todd Coleman says the game was designed from the start for kids between the ages of 8 and 12, using elements of fantasy inspired by sources as disparate as C.S. Lewis’Chronicles of Narnia and the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and card game (published by Konami).

“Part of our model was the Pixar idea,” says Coleman –that the game would primarily appeal to kids, but also contain sophisticated references that parents could enjoy. The formula seems to be working: A recent independent study of 30,000 Wizards 101 users found that about one out of every five respondents play with their parents or their grandparents.

Six-year-old KingsIsle specializes in games for the entire family. Wizard101 is its first and only property: The company is currently working on a second game, but hasn’t announced any details about content or launch date.

source: forbes.com

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