Is print media dead? Not if you’re Game Informer magazine. Not by a LONG shot.
Game Informer has a circulation of over 4,364,170 (that’s “paid and verified”) total and has added a whopping 800,000 plus subscribers to the American magazine in 2010.
Believe it or not, this makes the magazine bigger (with more subscribers) than People, Time, Oprah’s “O”, Sports Illustrated, Maxim and a number of other lifestyle and middle-age woman’s magazines. It’s truly incredible.
Even more incredible is the fact that the magazine is only 100,000 subscribers away from beating out National Geographic and making it into the top five most subscribed-to magazines in the nation. This according to media monitoring service BarrellesLuce.
Of course, you have to mention that GameStop’s collaboration with Game Informer is a large part of the reason why many people have subscribbed to the magazine who otherwise wouldn’t have. Not that that’s a bad thing. Formerly those who subscribed to Game Informer would receive an Edge Card, saving them 10% on Used Games. Now you get a PowerUp Rewards Pro membership.
Of course, this deal was pushed on every customer who checked out at GameStop as the employees were required to sell up by asking you to subscribe to Game Informer or pre-order an upcoming game; this double-edged sword has also caused many people to avoid the videogame shop.
Game Informer sits at #7 on the top 10 magazines overall. Here is the entire list:
1. AARP: The Magazine
2. AARP Bulletin
3. Better Homes and Gardens
4. Reader’s Digest
5. National Geographic
6. Good Housekeeping
7. Game Informer
8. Woman’s Day
9. Family Circle
10. Ladies’ Home Journal
11. People
12. Time
13. Taste of Home
14. Sports Illustrated
15. Cosmopolitan
16. Prevention
17. Southern Living
18. AAA Via
19. Maxim
20. Remedy
21. AAA Living
22. O, The Oprah Magazine
23. AAA Going Places
24. American Legion Magazine
25. Glamour
Via Joystiq