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Sims 3 and the dangers of torrent searches

June 04, 2009

Here at Hitwise we like to follow the releases of new products and see their impact online. The launch of The Sims 3, which was released on 2nd June 2009, has been no exception. The game was first showcased in March 2008 for a February 2009 launch date, only for it to be delayed for a further 4 months

Even though interest in the game started building before Christmas 2008, searches for the title didn’t reach March 2008 levels until February this year. As the chart below illustrates, search terms such as ‘sims 3 release date’, ‘the sims 3 release date’ and ‘when is the sims 3 coming out’ were amongst the most searched for terms back in March 2008, showing Sims fans eagerness to find out when the game would be released.

In February 2009 after the delay announcement, - another 200 terms had been added to the list, including ‘sims 3 release’, but also ‘sims 3 torrent’ and ‘sims3 delayed’ (all of which appeared in the top 10).

The search volume for The Sims 3 terms dropped off rapidly after the announcement that the game was to be delayed and hovered around pre-Christmas levels. That was until the week ending 23rd May when there was 142% surge in searches as The Sims 3 became the most searched for Video Game in Hitwise UK’s Hot Consumer Electronics List. This surge was mainly due to the rumours flooding the internet about the game being leaked to Torrent sites. Approximately 1 in 12 The Sims 3 searches during this week related to the leaked game, including ‘sims 3 leaked’, ‘the sims 3 torrent’, ‘sims 3 download’, ‘sims 3 leak’, ‘the sims 3 leaked’, and ‘the sims 3 download’.

A further 31% increase in searches during the week ending 30th May ensured that interest in the game in the week before launch was nearly 3 times that of its previous peaks in March 2008 and February 2009. The top 20 searches last week continue to include 4 references to downloading the game - ‘sims 3 torrent’. ‘sims 3 download’, ‘the sims 3 torrent’ and ‘download sims 3’ – but only 2 for the upcoming release date.

Posted by Richard Seymour at 11:58 AM | (0) | (0)
In Categories Industry

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