• Los Angeles Times, Thursday, January 29, 2009 11:30 AM

As the recession deepens, more Americans are playing free online games. According to a comScore report, display advertising views on online gaming sites surged 29% in November from a year earlier, thanks to an uptick in unique visits to such sites. While overall Internet traffic grew 4% in December, the number of visitors to online gaming sites grew 27% from December 2007, reaching 86 million. Time spent per visitor also surged 42%.

"It appears that online, ad-supported gaming is one of the activities that has benefited during this economic downturn," said comScore analyst Edward Hunter. "Not only have consumers turned to outlets such as gaming to take their minds off the economy, but as they curtail their discretionary gaming-related purchases they are turning to free alternatives."

According to the survey, the top free, ad-supported gaming sites that posted gains in December include: Yahoo Games +20%, EA Online +21%, Disney Games +13%, WildTangent +74%, and Addicting Games +17%. It did not include data from massively multiplayer online games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft, which both require monthly subscriptions to play.

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