While the world looks to tweets, companies on Facebook are quietly becoming the future EA's of the internet.
from Celebrity Cafe:
"When Mark Pincus, Michael Luxton, Eric Shiermeyer, Justin Waldron, Andrew Trader, and Steve Schoettler started the development company, Zynga, in 2007, it's doubtful that any expected
this type of success in such a brief amount of time. Zynga's games are
featured on the popular social networking sites Facebook and Myspace. The company expects to earn $100 million in sales this year . . . proof that all those game credits add up.
According to Silicon Alley Insider,
most of that money comes from "the 2% to 10% of users who pay $1 an
hour to play premium games or buy virtual goods." Their games, which
include "Dope Wars," "Texas Hold 'Em," and "Gang Wars," have an
estimated 71 million registered users, with 46 million monthly active
users.
BusinessWeek reported that in April, Zynga passed widget maker RockYou to become Facebook's most popular application maker. Their customers make up one-fifth of Facebook's 200 million users.
The San Francisco-based startup company has shaken off the
disdain from "real" video game developers, reveling in the success of
their simple but addictive games. Said Pincus, "A lot of people come to
the game industry who aren't typical developers and they can unleash
their creativity on these
massive platforms without the constraints of
cost and time to market."
The highlights from the Chart above:
- Zynga and Playfish’s battle for the #1 spot continues between Texas HoldEm Poker and Pet Society, with the latter closing the gap with a gain of 1,348,759 to Zynga’s 1,054,775.
- However, that same growth did not hold true for spots 4 - 6 with Bumper Sticker, Pass A Drink, and Lil Green Patch losing about a million active users each.
- Playfish title Geo Challenge kept it’s #8 spot with 3.97 million active users this past month with Word Challenge coming in behind, but surprisingly enough the other Playfish titles were ousted by MindJolt Games who jumped all the way from #17 to #10.
- Zynga RPGs Vampire Wars and Street Racing increased in popularity with the former coming out on top at #12.
- Behind the major players, new comer Know-It-All-Triva appeared on the scene at #15 with 2,543,557 users, followed by another fresh face, 101 Eggs & More with 2,464,247 users.
- The past month also played host to two other new games for the Top 25 with Bejeweled Blitz from PopCap Games at #21 and Playfish’s newest title Restaurant City at #23.
