It’s been no secret that many of the Facebook platform’s stars have had a hard time reaching the same level of dominance on iOS where mobile-focused companies like Rovio, Pocket Gems and Storm8 have flourished.

But perhaps the 800-pound gorilla of the social gaming world, Zynga, is starting to get some things right.

For example, at the beginning of the year, the San Francisco-based company’s poker app hovered around the 50s on the top grossing list. It was being trounced by Texas Poker from Siberian developer (yes, Siberia) Kamagames Ltd. But now Zynga Poker has climbed to consistently rank in the top 5 over the past month and was even briefly #1 yesterday in the U.S.

With Zynga’s acquisition of Newtoy, the company bought Words With Friends, an app that is a reliable top 15 performer on the grossing list. The studio, which became part of Zynga With Friends, also just launched another hit last week called Hanging With Friends, which is now #4 (see right).

And today, the company’s introducing a mobile extension of its CityVille franchise called CityVille Hometown. (You can check out our coverage of the new title here.)

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