Inside Social Games

The story of last week on Facebook’s platform was the growth of Zynga’s Café World social game, and it easily took the number on spot on our list of the top 20 fastest-growing gaming application. It launched on October 2nd and by today has reached more than 10 million monthly active users through a combination of cross-promotion, advertising, and, well, being a solid iteration on the virtual restaurant game concept.

		Name	MAU	Gain	Gain, %	Developer
1.		Café World	10,098,584	+8,598,277	+573.1	Zynga
2.		FarmVille	56,122,407	+2,422,800	+4.5	Zynga
3.		Pet Society	19,512,235	+623,927	+3.3	Playfish
4.		(Lil) Farm Life	4,737,693	+419,702	+9.7	Greenpatch Inc
5.		YoVille	18,917,129	+381,688	+2.1	Zynga
6.		My Fishbowl	5,143,462	+374,545	+7.9	TwoFishes Interactive
7.		Country Story	7,425,779	+373,398	+5.3	Playfish
8.		Restaurant City	16,200,404	+321,128	+2.0	Playfish
9.		開心農場	3,761,044	+264,965	+7.6	ELEX
10.		Bejeweled Blitz	7,688,337	+229,411	+3.1	Popcap Games
11.		Friend Facts	3,467,673	+217,380	+6.7	Topzy
12.		Texas HoldEm Poker	18,092,599	+201,301	+1.1	Zynga
13.		Brain Buddies	5,378,231	+193,344	+3.7	wooga – world of gaming
14.		Jungle Jewels	900,423	+179,730	+24.9	GameDuell
15.		Animal Paradise	3,310,592	+167,284	+5.3	Rekoo
16.		Sunshine Ranch	2,030,705	+149,484	+8.0	Rekoo
17.		Mobsters 2: Vendetta	2,966,508	+135,239	+4.8	Playdom
18.		Friends For Sale!	6,558,440	+107,961	+1.7	Serious Business
19.		Hug Me	3,409,953	+107,455	+3.3	RockYou!
20.		Quiztastic!	833,167	+104,032	+14.3	Playfish

It grew by 8.60 million fans since last Sunday, although Facebook does not appear to have updated the last few days’ worth of data so growth could be even higher now. Indeed, Facebook’s platform has experienced a number of technical issues over the last couple of days that appears to have delayed reporting on many apps. The problems may have also made it so users weren’t able to access apps at all, in some cases, thereby depressing numbers on this week’s top 20 fastest-growing list.

In any case, coming in second is FarmVille, Zynga’s previous big hit. Until Café World launched, its growth was setting industry records — and it is still going strong, having gained 2.42 million users to reach 56.1 million monthly actives.

Zynga does not own all the growth on the site, of course. Playfish’s Pet Society title continues to do well, having gained 624,000 to reach 19.5 million monthly actives to come in at number 3.  (Lil) Farm Life, a virtual farming game from Green Patch is growing despite FarmVille’s dominance. It gained 420,000 to reach 4.74 million, and the number 4 spot.

To dig deeper into the virtual goods market, check out our new report: Inside Virtual Goods: The US Virtual Goods Market 2009 – 2010.