As most any avid Facebook user may tell you games continue to be quite popular on the social networking giant. It is no surprise that a huge number of daily users do so in order to enjoy playing any of the huge number of games that are available. It doesn’t matter if you love card games, role playing, hidden object, word puzzles, or more – there are games for just about anyone. This leaves one question – what does it take to get wildly popular with the game loving crowd on Facebook? Just ask Zynga – the current reigning king of Facebook games.
According to AppData, for the month of August of this year Zynga has managed to dominate the listings of the top twenty five Facebook games when broken down by the daily number of average users. In fact, Zynga holds seven out of the top ten spots. Whether you enjoy playing their FB based poker, getting out on the farm or playing word games, the company has shown that it definitely has the game for you. With over seven million daily average users, the company’s Texas HoldEm Poker game continues to dominate the number one slot.
This data is somewhat of a surprise however when you consider how relatively poorly Zynga’s stock has continued to perform. With a reported net income loss in excess of $22 million and numbers that were quite unremarkable, the company’s second quarter on the market could be considered more than just dismal. This raises some serious questions, but the most important for gamers is whether the company will continue to release games that perform this well if their ability to generate revenue stays flat.
Many social games depend on sales of virtual currency and other such items in order to boost revenues. When you consider how hard hit gaming as a whole has been with the painful crunch in the economy though it really comes as no surprise to hear that Zynga’s sales are suffering. Take the MMORPG genre for example: the two heavy hitters World of Warcraft and Star Wars the Old Republic have both lost players left and right due to the simple fact that it has gotten too much to keep paying to play month after month. Since Zynga’s games are free to play in nature it is no wonder many player opt out of purchasing extras if at all possible.
Will Zynga be able to turn things around and continue being the top dog in social gaming? Right now it’s too soon to tell. With the continued poor economy though it will be a wonder if many of the social gaming companies are able to keep doing business in the same manner for any length of time.