GameTrack has the backing of publishers including Activision, Disney, EA, Namco Bandai and Take Two, with research duties being handled by Ipsos.

Unlike existing surveys such as ChartTrack, produced by GfK and the UK Interactive Entertainment Association, which only measures retail sales, ISFE will produce data on the value, volume and time spent by consumers across all devices and formats.

ISFE’s managing director Simon Little said the exact size and shape of the games industry has proved hard to pin down using existing data. “There are many routes to the customer but many of those routes are not fully visible,” he said. “Only one part of the industry has a barcode so we can track it in the traditional way.”

Ipsos MediaCT senior director Ian Bramley explained that there are 120 discrete forms of gaming that can be measured by GameTrack, including free and paid-for apps on smartphones, iPods and iPads, online multiplayer titles, social games and console and PC-based titles.

The first batch of data covers the UK, France and Germany. Spain will be added from the second quarter and the US is expected to come onboard in the next few months. Ipsos interviews 6,000 people per country per month, half using face-to-face computer-assisted interviewing and the other half taking part online.

According to GameTrack, 37% of the UK population play games, compared to 50% in France and 40% in Germany. 80% of 6- to 10-year-olds play regularly in the UK, dropping to about 20% for those aged 45-plus.

At the launch in London today one delegate expressed concern that GameTrack’s data on game playing skews lower and younger than what other surveys might report, but Bramley stood by the figures as the result of a “nationally representative, robust survey” and a truer reflection of the market than the online-only surveys typically used to produce data on gaming habits.