Real Player vs. Windows Media Player

What's the market share?

[Bentler]

I've been given some Real Video to publish and think I'd best do Windows too. Does anyone know the install base on player software these days? Thanks.

[Bentler]

Maybe I should ask this in a different way -- how many viewers might I lose by publishing only in Windows Media format?

[sem4u]

I have a short video on one of my websites. Last month 84% viewed it with Windows Media Player, while only 16% viewed it with Real Player.

[monkeythumpa]

I have seen some published reports but can't find them. It was something like Windows Media was on 75% of machines, Quicktime on 30% and Realplayer on 10%.

[Terabytes]

(IMO) Real player is far too invasive to your computer system (this is based on older versions I HAVE installed before). For that reason, I shy away from installations. I think may people that "protect" their system feel the same way. So the percentage of installations, may be less just because some people don't like the way the software is...

just a guess...

Tera

[Bentler]

Thanks everyone. I searched all over for media player market share data too, but couldn't find any. It may be that RealNetworks doesn't want to mention the size of their pie slice because their install base isn't a selling point. Perhaps Microsoft doesn't want to mention it as a legal matter.

Regardless, it seems offering video only in Real format would be a mistake. I really appreciate the real-world statistics provided-- that pretty much tells the story.