Interpersonal influence on online game choices

•We examine online friends’ influence on online game choices.•We use a hazard model and data on 1668 players’ gaming activities and friendships.•Likelihood of adopting the game increases with the number of prior adopter friends.•Close friends tend to exert larger influence on game adoption.

Several theories stress the importance of interpersonal influence on an individual’s adoption of a product or service. However, there has been little research that empirically examined how online friends influence an individual’s online product choices. This study examines the effect of a game player’s online friends who adopted a game earlier than the player on the likelihood that the player adopts the game. Two main factors considered in this study are: (1) the number of online friends who adopted a game earlier and (2) the strength of ties between the player and the player’s online friends who adopted the game earlier. Using a hazard model with data on 1,668 game players’ gaming activities and relational connections, we find (1) the likelihood that a player adopts a particular game increases the more her online friends adopted the game earlier, and (2) the influence of the prior adopter friends on the likelihood that a player adopts the game varies with the strength of ties between the player and her prior adopter friends. But the p-values of the coefficients for the corresponding independent variables are larger than the conventional cutoff point, 0.05. Possible causes for this statistical insignificance are discussed in the text.