Halo 3 Players Still Find Time for Movies, TV by Playing Early Evening and Weekend Days.

With everyone fighting for a piece of leisure time, is Halo 3 game playing squeezing movie-time (and what about TV)?  And with many players getting the game for Christmas, are other media going to have an Unhappy New Year?

The long awaited, blockbuster video game, Halo 3, was released on September 25 and grossed a whopping $170 million in first day sales.  Almost immediately after introduction IMMI panel data showed panelists across the country started playing the game:  among IMMI’s nearly 3000 panel members in six DMA’s there were 651 Halo 3 game starts in the two weeks following the introduction.  Some moviemakers blamed a drop in attendance on too much Halo 3.

The IMMI panel members who play Halo 3 certainly go to movies.

Looking only at the data for the IMMI panel members who played Halo 3 in the first two weeks after introduction, we can determine what effect the gameplay had on their media consumption:

It turns out the Halo 3 Gameplayers are able to fit 651 game starts of Halo 3 into their media days without greatly affecting their media consumption.  They do it by playing around the peak media times.

They play early in the day on the weekend.  27% of the total game starts for the week occurred before 5 PM on Saturday or Sunday. Play starts drop off after 5PM on the weekend.  During the week play starts begin to drop after 7PM…leaving plenty of time for prime time television. 

The percentage of total Halo 3 game starts for the week occurring on the weekend after 7PM: 7%.  Too small to have much effect on movie going during this prime movie attendance time.  

So if action movie attendance drops, don’t blame Halo 3.  On the other hand if your television show is aiming at Halo 3 players, you might avoid weekends 3 to 5 PM.   And of course avoid 5 to 7 AM, that’s apparently when everybody finally takes a break from game play to get some sleep.