Study: half of UK children have toy based on virtual world

December 2nd, 2011, 02:05 Posted By: wraggster

More than half of UK children own a toy based on a virtual world, according to a new study by youth research firm Dubit.
The company surveyed 500 children from around the UK, finding that 55 per cent owned at least one toy based on one of Moshi Monsters, Club Penguin, Build-A-BearVille, Poptropica or Webkinz. Seventy-three per cent had played at least one of the games in question.
Forty-seven percent had played Moshi Monsters, the hugely popular online game which now boasts 50 million users and a successful spin-off magazine. Developer Mind Candy is expanding at such a rate that it expects to double its headcount in the next 12 months and was recently valued at £125 million.
Twenty-five per cent of respondents had a Moshi Monsters toy, making it more popular than Ben 10 (20 per cent) and almost as popular as Spongebob Squarepants (29 per cent).
Dubit's findings show that the increasing popularity of children's online games is beginning to spread to other media, with these rapidly growing virtual worlds taking on the long-established dominance of the licensed toy market by TV and film. The Toy Retailers Association recently named the Moshi Monsters Moshling Treehouse among what it expects to be the most popular 12 toys in the UK this Christmas.

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/study-h...-virtual-world

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