Join us at the Digiday Publishing Summit from March 24-26 in Vail
Zynga has dominated the social-gaming space thanks to audience hits such as Farmville and Mafia Wars, as well as the huge distribution they enjoyed through the Facebook platform. But the gaming audiences on Facebook appear to be slipping, according to research by IHS iSuppli. The market intelligence firm suggests monthly active users for Zynga’s Facebook games dropped from 266 million users in the third quarter of last year to 225 million in the fourth. The reasons? Bored users, distractions and Facebook’s non-gaming-specific audience. Is the honeymoon over for social-gaming companies?
Facebook rocketed to prominence as a gaming platform in 2009 and 2010. However, with equal speed, the market then settled into a state of maturity in 2011, with conditions becoming markedly more challenging for game operators. While Facebook remains a worthwhile opportunity for companies able to meet these challenges, the tone of the market in 2012 will be somewhat muted compared to the optimistic outlook of the past few years.
Read the full post at the iSuppli site.
More in Media
Media Briefing: Publishers use standalone newsletter subscriptions to convert more readers
Publishers like Bloomberg, the FT, Axios and The Ankler are using different kinds of standalone newsletter subscriptions to grow revenue and convert readers around popular products.
How podcasters are tackling the challenge of subscriber churn
As podcast subscription businesses mature, podcasters face a challenge that publishers have grappled with for years: churn. Here’s how they’re working to retain paying listeners.
How YouTube Shorts revenue compares to long-form video revenue for creators
Creators are finding that their payouts for short-form content on YouTube are still dwarfed by the ad revenue they can glean from long-form content.