MMO Market Enjoys 30% Growth According to Report

The MMO market is in continual growth according to a new report by Newzoo.  The report states that 47.5 million North Americans now play MMOs with around 90% playing free to play MMOs and there are  12.5 million MMO gamers paying subscriptions in that region.
The report also shows that console games are far more popular which would be the natural assumption.  The report also states that 53% of males aged between 16-25 play MMOs while 81% in the same demographic play console games. However, the report does state there is some overlap between the console and MMO audience with 57% of 360 owners also playing MMOs and 61% of PS3 gamers also take part in the MMO experience.
The age group figures are also interesting with 53% of MMO gamers being older that 25 and gamers who pay subscriptions are slightly older on average with with 60% being above the age of 25.
Heiko Hubertz, CEO and founder of Bigpoint believes F2P is poised to become the primary monetization model for the video game industry within 12-18 months. “Once limited to relatively simple Flash-based games, the entire online category is on the verge of achieving a level of quality previously dominated by console and PC-installed games. Regardless, these titles still cost much less to build than retail games; we’re able to drive strong ROI by implementing flexible F2P models and aggressively optimizing them.”