Although online ad revenues continue to slide, online gaming sites reported display advertising up 29 percent in November 2008 year-over-year, according to the latest report by ComScore, The Los Angeles Times reported.

While overall Internet traffic increased 4 percent, that of online gaming sites boosted 27 percent to 86 million in December 2008. The time spent on the sites also rose 42 percent per visitor.

"It appears that online, ad-supported gaming is one of the activities that has benefited during this economic downturn," according to ComScore analyst Edward Hunter.

"Not only have consumers turned to outlets such as gaming to take their minds off the economy, but as they curtail their discretionary gaming-related purchases they are turning to free alternatives," Hunter added.

The top free gaming sites seeing gains in December include:

= Yahoo Games +20%

= EA Online +21%

= Disney Games +13%

= WildTangent +74%

= Addicting Games +17%

The survey did not include data from massively multiplayer online games, such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft, The LA Times reported.