Xboxist

Lycos 8th Annual List of Popular Toys & Games

Poker, Most-Searched Game for 3rd Consecutive Year; Webkinz Big Winner, More Popular than iPod; Gaming Consoles Big Losers, Wii, Playstation Fail to Make List Amazon, Most Popular Shopping Destination Online

Lycos a leading provider of social publishing, media and search technologies, yesterday announced its eighth annual list of the most popular toys and video games this holiday season, based on Internet search activity. For a complete list and commentary of The Lycos Top Toys and Video Games of 2007, go to http://50.lycos.com. Users can also voice their opinions on this year's list, and weigh in on weekly Internet trends and pop culture on The Lycos 50 Blog located at http://lycos50.tripod.com/blog/.

    The Top 10 Most-Searched Toys this holiday season:
    1) Poker                6) iPod
    2) Naruto               7) Barbie
    3) Pokemon              8) Bratz
    4) Harry Potter         9) Neopets
    5) Webkinz             10) Hannah Montana

    The Top 10 Most-Searched Video Games this holiday season:

    1) RuneScape            6) Halo 2

    2) The Sims             7) Grand Theft Auto Vice City

    3) WWE Smackdown        8) Resident Evil

    4) Mortal Combat        9) Gundam Crossfire

    5) World of Warcraft   10) Halo 3

Poker and specific poker-related items like poker chips, poker cards and poker sets top the 2007 list of most-searched toys with web users for the third consecutive year. Online interest in poker generates only three percent more search activity than the second most popular toy of 2007, Naruto. Pokemon (#3) makes the Lycos Top Toys list for the second year in a row, while Yu-Gi-Oh continues its decline in search popularity. The last time Yu-Gi-Oh made the Lycos Top Toys list was in 2004. Harry Potter (#4) makes its fourth consecutive appearance this year, with the most popular Harry Potter-themed searches centering on Harry Potter games, books, DVDs and Harry Potter puppets.

Two newcomers enter the Lycos Top Toys list of 2007, including Webkinz (#5), the lovable plush pets that live in an online world, doubling in search popularity over the past year, generating 10 times more interest online than Neopets (#9). Also making her debut on this year's list is Hannah Montana (#10), the Disney Channel Series starring actress Miley Cyrus. If web search activity is any indication, the most popular Hannah Montana-related gifts this holiday season will include Hannah Montana Dolls. But in the doll category, Barbie (#7) continues to rule, extending her run on the annual Lycos list of Top Toys and Video Games to eight consecutive years in the Top 10. Interestingly, while search interest in Barbie dropped slightly in 2007, she still handily beat out the Bratz (#8) Dolls, generating nearly twice as much interest online.

In the absence of new product releases, gaming consoles like Playstation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Gamecube, see activity decline for the second straight year, losing more than half of their online search popularity, while the iPod (#6) makes its third consecutive appearance on the Lycos Top Toys list, driven primarily by the release of the iPod Nano.

On the video game front, for the third straight year, a massive multi- player game comes in at number one, with RuneScape. Also racking up big points online are Halo 2 and Halo 3, as the sixth and tenth most popular video games based on web search activity. This marks the third year in a row that sports-themed video game Madden fails to score with web users, while mobile and handheld devices like P2P and Nintendo Game Boy continue their drop in online popularity, failing to make the Lycos Top 10 Toys List again this year.

The online toy, department and specialty stores seeing the biggest jump in search activity over the past month include:

1) Amazon               6) Walmart
    2) Target               7) eBay
    3) Toys R Us            8) Circuit City
    4) Gap                  9) Abercrombie & Fitch
    5) Best Buy            10) Barnes and Noble