Karol Severin

Karol is a co-founder and Research Director at MIDiA. With over a decade of experience in consumer research, industry analysis, and consulting, Karol oversees the direction, coverage and quality of all MIDiA’s research output. Prior to co-founding MIDiA, Karol gained experience in TMT market research and consulting, as well as an entertainment industry startup founder. He holds a business management degree from Queen Mary, University of London, with specialisation in strategy, quantitative methods, and entrepreneurship.

Cover image for Bored Ape Yacht Club

Bored Ape Yacht Club
BAYC cracks the code for NFT fandom

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Srishti Das and Tatiana Cirisano

11 Jan 2022

Media and Marketing NFT

Launched in April as the flagship creation of media company Yuga Labs, BAYC is a collection of ten thousand cartoon ape NFTs, priced at 0.08 ETH apiece. The collection has generated more than $1 billion to date and counts many celebrities, like Snoop Dogg and Jimmy Fallon, among its community of owners.

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Fandom drivers
From fan psychology to NFT demand

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Srishti Das and Tatiana Cirisano

9 Jan 2022

superfan Spotify merchandise

Fandom is entertainment’s growth currency, yet it remains both under-valued and poorly understood. While other entertainment currencies can be accurately measured (number of streams, number of sales, number of views, etc.) it is only the effects of fandom that can be quantified (number of likes / shares, merchandise sales, etc.

Ubisoft+ is coming to Xbox as shifts in distribution continue

Karol Severin

6 Jan 2022

Ubisoft Xbox games distribution

Ubisoft has announced that its subscription service Ubisoft+, currently available on PC, will come to Xbox in the future. It will also make its upcoming title Rainbox Six Exploration available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass from day one.

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Gamer consumer deep dive Q3 2021

Karol Severin

23 Dec 2021

Gaming mobile games Business Strategy

This report presents a deep dive into gamers across five areas: Gamer segments Console owners Services and apps Games behaviours Entertainment behaviours Including more than fifty slides of data and analysis, as well as detailed Excel files, the topics covered include: mobile gamers, console gamers, computer gamers, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Dis...

Gamer penetration: Two findings from end-of-year health check

Karol Severin

16 Dec 2021

Gamers gamer penetration Gamer demographics

Gamer penetration is one of those stats that most people are intuitively aware of – mobile is the largest, followed by PC and console gamer bases…However, when we get complacent with existing knowledge and take it for granted for too long, this is when one runs a risk of missing something import...

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2022 MIDiA predictions
The year of the creator

Mark Mulligan, Tim Mulligan, Karol Severin, Hanna Kahlert, Srishti Das, Kriss Thakrar and Tatiana Cirisano

16 Dec 2021

Creators Apple Spotify

In this report MIDiA Research analysts present their predictions for what will be the big trends in digital media and tech across music, video, brands, marketing, games, and sports in 2022 and beyond. Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Adele,...

PlayStation Plus overhaul: a defensive catch-up move, or foundation for growth offensive?

Karol Severin

9 Dec 2021

PlayStation Xbox Game Pass games subscriptions

According to Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter, Sony plans to weave PlayStation Now (its on-demand games streaming offering) into PlayStation Plus (subscription necessary to access multiplayer features, and a small, windowed selection of games).

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Games worlds
Assessing audience reach, value and relevance

Karol Severin

25 Nov 2021

Apple GTA Call of Duty

As more online games worlds enter the market, brands and marketers need to focus more on monitoring the nuances of each games world community to identify the most effective partnership opportunities. The key factors to pay attention to are reach, audience value, and relevance.

Labels could have helped Epic reimagine music – now Harmonix will do it instead

Karol Severin

25 Nov 2021

music industry Games industry Epic Games

Epic Games announced it is acquiring Harmonix, the maker of Rock Band. While this makes sense for the Fortnite maker and its entertainment metaverse, it has the risk of diluting the potential music expertise that labels and other music companies could (and should) offer to games partners.

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Quick take: Bridging IRL and digital – the next phase of entertainment consumption

Karol Severin

19 Nov 2021

IRl consumption habits consumer trends

We are entering a new phase in the evolution of consumption. Traditionally, IRL dominated entertainment consumption. With the advent of the internet, smartphones and other technological innovations, companies and consumers created de-facto digital replicas of IRL.

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Reality check: NFTs are still niche, but they do have mainstream potential

Karol Severin

11 Nov 2021

NFT Games Audience Insight

The rise of NFTs has certainly been one of the talks of 2021. Looking at emerging trends and then separating the hype from the substance is MIDiA’s specialty. This is particularly pertinent as the most hyped trends are often labelled as ‘going mainstream’ too early, which can be a misleading l...

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Quick take: Another blow for Epic Games as Fortnite shuts down in China

Karol Severin

4 Nov 2021

Fortnite Epic Games regulation

It has not been the best year for Fortnite. Following the fiasco with its Apple lawsuit, as well as year on year consumer penetration having declined , the Fortnite maker announced that it is shutting down its Chinese version of Fortnite, Fortress Night.

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FaZe goes public – what to watch out for

Karol Severin

28 Oct 2021

FaZe esports culture

FaZe is going public via a SPAC merger. It is positioning itself as the company who can help brands reach Gen Z. Can it succeed? Every generation or so, there is a company that builds its narrative to investors around being the company to help reach and influence the ever-so-fickle young demographic.

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EA’s exclusive FIFA license is under threat as games go cross-entertainment

Karol Severin

22 Oct 2021

FIFA EA football

Last week it was reported that FIFA and EA are at an impasse regarding the renewal negotiations of an exclusive license deal. EA stated that it is considering renaming its flagship football title, while FIFA responded with a press release stating that “the future of gaming and esports for football...

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The key winners and losers of the Covid-bounce effect in games

Karol Severin

14 Oct 2021

games engagement Fortnite Roblox

As we have covered before, games engagement began to experience effects of the Covid-bounce . As usual, however, there are winners and losers within the wider micro-dynamics. The following graph demonstrates how 20 key games franchises fared in the US between Q2 2020 and Q2 2021, in terms of consume...

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Why games-related video warrants a specific category on mainstream video services

Karol Severin

8 Oct 2021

Gamers SVOD genre preferences

In Q2 2021, 11% of US consumers stated that they watch games-related videos every month. This is now nearing the same penetration rate as fandom of reality TV shows or the news (both at 12%), and greater than fandom for factual (7%) or anime (9%).

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Opportunity for entertainment companies as the ‘Covid Bounce’ effect is in full swing for games

Karol Severin

30 Sep 2021

covid-19 impact covid bounce Games industry

Following the pandemic breakout in March 2020, MIDiA predicted that Covid-19-induced games engagement growth was temporary and will face a correction as the world starts coming back to life. Indeed, with four quarters of data in hindsight, the Covid Bounce effect for games is in full swing.

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Games discovery and conversion
Navigating between generations in the 2020s

Karol Severin

30 Sep 2021

Spotify YouTube digital natives

The 2020s population is split between digital natives and older digital migrants, which shapes how consumers discover and convert to new games. Younger consumers are more likely to discover via channels and formats pioneered by digital natives, such as creator coverage and social media feeds.

Justice is served…Initial thoughts on the Apple vs. Epic ruling

Karol Severin

14 Sep 2021

Epic Games Apple Fortnite

The court ruling in the Apple vs. Epic Games case has taken media headlines by storm. However, given the diversity of narratives around the outcome, it is clear that the ‘winner’, is not exactly clear yet.

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Quick take: Word of mouth is no longer the single most powerful games discovery tool

Karol Severin

3 Sep 2021

games discovery word of mouth Social media

Do you know the saying ‘ word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool ’? Well, things are changing - or at least evolving. MIDiA’s Q2 2021 consumer survey states that 25% of consumers typically discover new games on social media feeds – the same penetration rate as consumers who stated ...

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