LONDON, February 4 /PRNewswire/ -- WildTangent, the world's largest games media company, today announced a series of impressive growth numbers including record-setting ad sales and activations of its WildTangent ORB game console which comes pre-installed on most consumer PCs and laptops in Europe.

In December 2009 alone, game console activations rose to 1,978,064, a year-over-year increase of more than 150 percent. The UK saw the largest growth among European countries jumping from 181,909 activations in December 2008 to 419,202 in December 2009, an increase of 130 percent.

Despite a global economic meltdown and in a direct contrast to the steep decline in the sales of traditional game consoles, customers from all over Europe flocked to the WildTangent game service in 2009 in record numbers, said Peter Lorenz, WildTangent's director of business development in EMEA. As consumers continue to search for more economical means of entertainment, our online games service becomes increasingly attractive driving more and more Europeans to our broad game selection and free gameplay options.

Console activations weren't the only indicator of strong growth for WildTangent in the UK where year-over-year advertising sales for the company grew by more than 300 percent.

Console activations and ad sales play off of one another and drive each higher, said Adam Yates, director of EMEA advertising sales at WildTangent. Because our console activations continue to grow, we've created more inventory and a broader audience demographic that has caught the attention of advertisers in the UK and across Europe. This increased ad spending creates more free gaming sessions which attracts more and more users. It's a cycle we expect to continue.

About WildTangent

Founded in 1998, WildTangent is the world's largest games media company offering its more than 50 million unique monthly gamers nearly 1,000 of the most popular online and downloadable games from the world's top developers and publishers.

WildTangent offers advertisers the ability to associate their brands with premium game content and connect to a rapidly growing and deeply engaged consumer base.

The WildTangent ORB(TM) game console ships directly on the desktops of leading PC manufacturers including Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba giving it a huge global footprint of connected game playing consumers.

For more information visit www.wildtangent.com.

CONTACT: Sean Sundwall of WildTangent, +1-425-497-4601, sean.sundwall@wildtangent.com

SOURCE: WildTangent

CONTACT: Sean Sundwall of WildTangent, +1-425-497-4601,sean.sundwall@wildtangent.com