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Looks like adventure games are on the rise again. There were several great releases in 2012, including brilliant and highly acclaimed Walking Dead from TellTale.

Is there a market research that proves the new rise of adventure games? Bonus points for revenue estimates and such. I'm particularly interested in mobile games segment, but everything else is of interest as well.

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Voting to close; in it's current format I think this question is probably a little too open to extended discussion, lists, opinions over facts, etc; Josh's answer provides the rationale behind this. – mh01 Feb 22 at 18:21

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There probably is market research data available that one could use to draw correlations to a renaissance of the adventure game genre. Such data would hardly constitute proof, though. The best proof would be in the sales and profit/loss numbers directly from the publisher or developer (which aren't typically released, unless they are buried amidst the earnings reports of large public publishers).

The market research data in question is generally not freely available (sometimes a subset of it is), but you can contact various market research firms (these guys, these guys, or these guys for example) to see about purchasing some.

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Regarding "proves the new rise", I meant it as in "speaks in favor of the new rise", not as "proves without a doubt". – Alexander Gladysh Feb 13 at 20:07
Thank you for the links for the market research firms. I'll appreciate links to relevant existing reports (including "buy me" pages for non-free ones) and / or analytics papers (even more "casual" ones). Googling reveals only way outdated stuff... – Alexander Gladysh Feb 13 at 20:26
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Here is an analysis of Kickstarter projects for games 2012:

http://www.slideshare.net/ICOPartners/kickstarter-and-games-september-2012

The final few slides provide a percentage split per game category, and interesting for you is a comment on slide 15 - "RPGs and Adventure games are still very much dominating"

Edit: Another article http://www.vgchartz.com/article/250252/weekly-sales-analysis-30-june-2012-spec-ops-spider-man/ for global sales across all platforms, compiled during 2012, shows 4 of the top 5 slots are held by RPG and Adventure games.

Edit2: Alexander, if time is no question for you, then please make use of "App Annie" (google it), and Distimo provide reports too. You could contact Distimo or AppAnnie via email and ask them a question or two on this matter. Good luck!

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-1: It should be noted that this doesn't really constitute evidence of anything. Kickstarter donations don't necessarily equate to sales. Indeed, high Kickstarter donations tend to represent under-served demographics among gamers, as those gamers are more willing to donate to any project that might produce something that fills a need they're not otherwise getting. Also, Lego Batman is not an adventure game, not in the same sense as point-and-click games like Walking Dead. RPGs are also not adventure games. And that was just one week. So this analysis is highly dubious. – Nicol Bolas Feb 21 at 20:12
With all respect to your -1 Nicol, it should be noted of Alexanders reply to a previous answer, in that: "not as "proves without a doubt"" denotes no requirement for evidence as you mention. Also, I agree to some extent that Lego Batman can be questioned as an adventure game. When a reputable website holding regular chart data categorises it as adventure, I take it as such. – Jason Coombes Feb 22 at 7:09
If Lego Batman is in the same genre as Walking Dead, then the genre classification "adventure game" has absolutely no meaning. Castlevania, Metroid, Zelda, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and many other games would be just as much adventure games as Walking Dead. And these games have always been popular, and thus, the question is completely meaningless, since there's no evidence that this "adventure game" genre has ever not been popular. Point and click adventure games are their own genre, separate from Lego Batman and the like. – Nicol Bolas Feb 22 at 7:25
As to the question of "proof", my point isn't that it doesn't "prove without a doubt." My point is that the evidence is illegitimate. That is, it isn't evidence that supports the idea that point-and-click adventure games are more popular now. The most you could say is that the kickstarter donations do, but one week of sales data is not evidence of anything. You can't use a single bit of sales by itself; you need at least a timeframe aggregate for it to be evidence of any kind. – Nicol Bolas Feb 22 at 7:28

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