Berlin, Germany-based Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) application metrics provider AppStats has examined the top social games in 2012, and states that Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is both the biggest loser and the biggest winner of the year.
AppStats revealed that Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) has ‘lost’ over 19 million daily active users during the year 2012, ranging over 7 games. On the other hand, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s Farmville 2 game is also the largest gainer of 2012 with 8.4 million new daily active users since its launch. AppStats also observed quite a few new developers entered the list of biggest gainers in 2012.
Winners
The winners include Candy Crush Saga from UK-based King.com, taking the second place in that list after Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s Farmville with an upsurge of 7.3 million daily active players this year. Yesterday, AppStats also put the finishing touch to King.com the Social gaming king of the year.
Spanish developer, Social Point’s adventure-filled game Dragon City was ranked third with 4.6 million daily active users. Social Point was founded in 2008.
SongPop, a widespread game by green developer Freshplanet, has been able to attract a large following in 2012 and ranks sixth on the list of biggest gainers of the year. Rovio’s Angry Birds Friends also succeeded to be included in the top 10 games. Angry Birds was ranked at the ninth place.
Social Game Winners for 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Losers
Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA)’s presence in the list of losers is quite noticeable when we look at the biggest losers of 2012 in games category. It has been a dreadful year for the company in many ways, and it won’t help that the top 3 ranks in the series of leading losers of 2012 in terms of daily active user diminution are held in reserve for CityVille, CastleVille and FarmVille.
Overall, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) games takes 7 out of the 10 places in the top loser’s data with total losses capitulating to over 19.1 million in the top ten. As AppStats reveals in its report, Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA) is generally challenging itself: the drops in daily active players come primarily from games like CityVille and Farmville, both of which have released a sequel in 2012. According to AppStats, Electronic Arts game ‘The Sims Social’ ranks as the fourth biggest loser of 2012 with a total loss of 2.4 million daily active users.
It will be worth watching as to how its new games perform in 2013, with competition growing up intensely, particularly from European social game developers.
Social Game Losers for 2012 (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY: In a blog post dated December 3, 2012, Zynga announced that it was cutting its ties with Facebook and will begin hosting its games on its own social network. For nearly two years, Facebook has exercised just too much control over Zynga, and takes a 30% commission from every dollar spent on virtual goods by Zynga game players. This has always been a bone of contention for Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.
For the nine month period ending September 30, 2012, Zynga has coughed up approximately $275 million in commissions to Facebook. For the calendar year ending December 31, 2011, Zynga paid Facebook $330 million in commissions. If Zynga hosted all its games on its own social network, Zynga would've generated a profit of $114.22 after-taxes.
In a blog post dated June 29, 2012, I commented on Zynga's announcement that it was developing Zynga With Friends, its own social network. In that post, I was very critical of Zynga's inability to generate new hit games comparable to Farmville and Mafia Wars, and its inability to retain gamers.
Zynga's departure from the Facebook platform will negatively impact Facebook because it will have to replace those revenues with advertising or its own games (something it is rumored to be doing). Based on the latest forecasts, revenues from social games represent about 9% of total revenues.
In previous blog posts dated June 12, 2012.and July 18, 2012, I described in great detail how Zynga's users are ditching it for other online gaming destinations, and that monthly active usage has plummeted to record lows. This information correlates with AppStats's findings for the year 2012. Zynga will probably make the transition from hosting its games on Facebook to its own social network over several months (probably well into 2013).
Courtesy of an article dated December 20, 2012 appearing in ValueWalk
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