Top Game Growth Slows, More Companies Rise on This Week’s Top 20 List

For whatever reason, some of the biggest games on Facebook seem to be growing slower this week versus last week, according to AppData. Specifically, the past few months have seen Zynga’s FarmVille — and then Café World — gain millions of new users each week. But on today’s list of the top 20 applications with the most new users, FarmVille comes in at number 5 with 781,000, and Café World at 13 with only 395,000. “Only” is relative, as these are still the largest games on Facebook. And Zynga’s other games, like Mafia Wars and Roller Coast Kingdom, are also on today’s list.

Top Gainers This Week
Name MAU Gain↓ Gain, %
1. icon Mafia Wars 26,764,060 +1,094,482 +4.09
2. icon FarmVille 63,704,394 +781,298 +1.23
3. icon Mobsters 2: Vendetta 4,493,661 +559,275 +12.45
4. icon Bejeweled Blitz 10,635,910 +401,424 +3.77
5. icon Café World 28,372,852 +394,972 +1.39
6. icon Sorority Life 7,728,334 +326,556 +4.23
7. icon Castle Age 1,905,213 +244,560 +12.84
8. icon what are you born to do? 1,031,395 +225,366 +21.85
9. icon Forever Friends 1,625,516 +209,026 +12.86
10. icon Animal Paradise 4,361,060 +180,854 +4.15
11. icon Restaurant City 18,188,206 +175,990 +0.97
12. icon Which Zodiac Sign Are You Most Compatible With? 787,280 +169,492 +21.53
13. icon Barn Buddy 7,195,681 +129,706 +1.80
14. icon Texas HoldEm Poker 18,877,827 +122,381 +0.65
15. icon WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE? 135,179 +101,650 +75.20
16. icon Pillow Fight 2,650,652 +96,044 +3.62
17. icon Graffiti 3,048,534 +88,502 +2.90
18. icon The Hierarchy 99,114 +88,049 +88.84
19. icon UNO™ 2,612,336 +85,105 +3.26
20. icon Online People 1,140,444 +84,688 +7.43

But why did none of them gain the millions they had before? Did Facebook’s switch from a raw news feed to an algorithmic feed a few weeks ago make it harder for Zynga (and other developers) to engage users? Perhaps Zynga has cut back on running ads in Facebook in the past week?

Growth among the top games does appear to have slowed down this past week, versus the week before, and more noticeably than growth of top applications, overall. Not on the list — because it does not identify itself as a game — is Happy Aquarium, by CrowdStar. It came in at number one on the overall list of the top 20 growing apps, as we covered over on Inside Facebook this morning. This virtual aquarium decoration game gained 2.37 million users to reach 25.1 million total, making it the fifth-largest app on the platform.

Playdom also shows up, with Mobsters 2: Vendetta and Sorority Life making the list. So does Bejeweled Blitz, from Popcap Games.

There are some other interesting new apps on the list, from game developers we haven’t seen much. One is virtual farming game Island Paradise, from NeoPets creator Meteor Games. Another is fighting game Little Warrior, from an independent developer team. And another is Caste Age, a nice-looking fantasy role-playing game that’s also from an independent developer team. There’s also Fish Life, another virtual aquarium game, from Singapore-based Clipwire Games. However, neither Island Paradise nor Fish Life show up on this list, for the same reason that Happy Aquarium doesn’t.

On today’s game list, there are a few other notables, like the official Uno Facebook app, made by Gamehouse, and The Hierarchy, from Serious Business.

AppData - Facebook application stats and data from Inside Network

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6 Responses to “Top Game Growth Slows, More Companies Rise on This Week’s Top 20 List”

  1. FarmVille Still Growing Strong says:

    [...] You can read the full article and check the rest of the list here. [...]

  2. סיפורי דגים says:

    [...] הכוללות גם משחקים, ועל כן, קצב הגדילה של לא מעט משחקים נעשה איטי יותר בשבוע [...]

  3. A Few Diamonds in the Rough On This Week’s Up-and-Coming Apps List says:

    [...] a spy role-playing game from Serious Business, continues its climb. It has nearly doubled from when we noticed it at the beginning of the week, reaching 189,000 monthly actives [...]

  4. Small Facebook Apps Get Bigger on This Week’s Top Gainers List says:

    [...] with Yakuza Lords and Band of Heroes also appearing further down on today’s list. Note that the latter two also made our up-and-comers list last Friday; that list looks at the top growing apps with between 100,000 and 1 million users, so clearly, and [...]

  5. Small Facebook Games See Solid Growth on This Week’s Top Gainers List says:

    [...] with Yakuza Lords and Band of Heroes also appearing further down on today’s list. Note that the latter two also made our up-and-comers list last Friday; that list looks at the top growing apps with between 100,000 and 1 million users, so clearly, and [...]

  6. Rekoo Launches Sunshine DeepSea on Facebook says:

    [...] been a while since we heard any news from Chinese developer, Rekoo. Having had great successes late last year with both Animal Paradise and Sunshine Ranch, the company has been hard at work with a new social [...]

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