The Top 10 Facebook Games for August 2011, features Zynga as the big winner, again, managing to have 6 games in the top and occupying the first 4 places, followed by Gardens of Time the biggest winner of the month with almost 2 million monthly active users growth. On the other hand, we have to major drops of around 8 million MAU, while CityVille still manages to be in 1st place, Monster Galaxy from Gaia Online has fallen into 8th place and loosing almost half is users.
The Big picture shows a generalized drop on MAU users on all games, maybe it is the holidays, maybe not… we’ll get into that next month, stay with our Top 10 List of Facebook Games for August:
1 – CityVille
CityVille has been for months, the most played game on Facebook, many City Building games have come out, but none could get even closer to the success of Zynga CityVille, with almost 79 millions of monthly active players, suffered a decrease of almost 9 million users when compared to last month. What is the secret? Maybe regular updates and new features, seasonal items and quests, it still goes on as an overall success, but may be suffering from Empire & Allies huge success.
2 – Empires & Allies
Empires & Allies uses a formula that will for sure come up cloned soon, mixing City Building and management with light strategy, seems to appraise lots of Facebook players, allowing player to fight each other in a relatively friendly environment. Empires & Allies was one of the most fastest growing game ever around, also to the great marketing strategy and knowledge of its developers and the advanced established domain over Facebook games. Its growth retracted a little this month, maybe due to the fast initial growth and also the sumer season.
3 – FarmVille
FarmVille is slowly loosing players, even with the efforts of Zynga to revive it, with Expansions like English CountrySide, there are too many game offers, and with such variety, that makes Facebook users want to try new things, even in the farming genre, there are so many offers and some really good with different themes and innovations… Farmville currently has around 35 million played, less 3,5 millions than the month of July, and is predicted to continue it’s fall…
4 – Texas Holdem Poker
Online Poker is played by millions and millions of players, and there is no prediction that this will change soon, Texas Holdem from Zynga, benefits from the Facebook environment, and the easy access of it’s users to the game platform, none the less it has fallen 1,5 million players when compared to July, standing now on the 34 millions MAU.
5 – Gardens of Time
Gardens of Time is the biggest winner of the month, its been growing steadily for the past times, and it is one of the most played games of Facebook, it benefits from the fact that there is little competition yet, off course it is expected the next times to see an increased number of Hidden Object games flowering on Facebook, as it is already proven that it is one genre of success among it’s users. Gardens of Time already counts on almost 16 millions MAU, more 1,8 millions than last month and with tendency to continue growing.
6 – FrontierVille
FrontierVille has been a constant presence in the Top Facebook games for a while, first because it is from Zynga, with all the benefits that this comes with, and because it uses a very nice theme, mixing several game features, lots of updated content and sweepstakes, improved farming with exploration, etc… it is falling down as other game, with less 1,7 million MAU that the previous month to 12 million monthly active users…
7 – Café World
With all the new Café, Shop, Restaurant, Sweat, etc, etc… management games around, Café World is still the most played in the genre, for how long remains to see… loosing around 700 thousand MAU to 11 million Mau since last monthly count.
8 – Monster Galaxy
Monster Galaxy registered one of the fastest growths on Facebook games, last month gained over 6 millions users and this month looses over 8 million MAU, but there is an explanation to the phenomenon, the game is focused on a very specific age range, kids to teenagers users, which are known to have a more volatile trending, they are bound to faster and even viral trends, which happened to Monster Galaxy last month, but also as intensive users they tend to finish games faster shortening its lifespan. Also this users are now in their Summer Holidays, enjoying the sun and the outdoor activities more than playing in the PC. We need to wait for September to confirm or not the current tendency.
9 – Bejeweled Blitz
Bejeweled Blitz is the most played Puzzle game from the list, this type of games doesn’t follow the normal flow of continuity of the Top Facebook games, it is played in small games of 60 seconds and can be repeated to try for a better score or just for fun, but doesn’t have the tasks and time demands of other games, that ensure players keep coming back to see how their crops are doing, also there are much more offer on this type of game inside Facebook as outside of it.
10 – Diamond Dash
Diamond Dash is another classic puzzle game like the above, in 1 minute you have to match 3 or more pieces of the same color, the more you match the more point you gather. Quite simple, but addictive, and people keep coming back…
