Game Farmville

One thing you might have wondered is why do you have to be a Facebook user to play Farmville. I’m sure there are a lot of different reasons, but there are two big, extremely obvious reasons why Zynga chose to build Farmville on Facebook instead of building it on Myspace or even just hosting the game on their own website. The reasons are that Facebook is huge (300 million users) and incredibly social. Those two reasons actually build off of each other to make Farmville the most played game in the world right now.

Facebook Is Big

First, let’s look at Facebook’s size. Facebook has 300 million users worldwide. I believe there are something like 100 million users in the U.S. alone. That’s a huge potential audience for Zynga’s games, so of course that works in their favor. That’s also part of the reason why Farmville has reached the 50+ million user mark so fast. There’s just so many people already on Facebook, so the friction to play Farmville is really low.

Bottom line – it’s hard to get 50 million people to play your game if there aren’t at least 50 million people already using the service. Facebook is so much bigger than Twitter or MySpace at this point that it’s got the highest potential for gaining customers for Zynga.

Of course, potential customers mean nothing if you can’t reach them. That’s why the social aspects of Facebook are such a big reason why Farmville got so big so fast. It’s the social connections that are driving growth.

Facebook Is Social

Farmville is a game that you play by yourself, yet it manages to connect you with your friends’ farms. It seems bizarre but it’s what can only be described as a passively multiplayer game. Kind of like playing chess by mail. It has social interaction that can impact gameplay, but you don’t need friends to enjoy Farmville.

The social elements are so deep into the gameplay that they’re almost impossible to spot at times. For example, when you visit your friends’ farms you get gold and experience, which is nice, but at the same time the game will send notifications to your friends that you helped their farm. In a subtle way, you’re advertising to your friends that they should be playing Farmville(since you are).

Also, every time you gain a level, the game will let you post a status update to tell all your friends that you are “moving on up in Farmville”. Just think about that for a second, every time you post that it’s a free advertisement for Farmville posted to your 100+ closest friends. It didn’t cost Zynga anything to send it and you’re proud to tell everybody how awesome your farm is. It’s like getting a free Mountain Dew t-shirt in a contest. You feel like a winner and they get free advertising every time you wear it.

There Is No Comparison

When you combine that kind of social advertising with such a huge audience and you have a formula for explosive growth the likes the gaming industry has never seen. That’s why every time Zynga releases a new game, it can grow by like 8 million people a week. That’s unheard of in the video game industry. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – this year’s biggest game release, is probably going to only sell somewhere between 8-15 million copies total. 5x as many people have played Farmville this year and Zynga’s latest hit game Cafe World already has over 15 million users and it is only two or three weeks old.

To compare all of these numbers to how big the social gaming market is on MySpace, in June 2009 the biggest MySpace game, Mobsters, had 13.6 million users playing. Monthly growth on that game was 112,000. In a matter of a few weeks, Zynga’s latest game is bigger than the biggest MySpace game and it’s only one of many Zynga games on Facebook. Add that all together and it becomes clear why Farmville lives on Facebook. Facebook is big, it’s social, and it’s a much bigger opportunity than any other social game platform out there right now. If I were Zynga, I’d be doing the exact same thing.

Related posts:

1. Farmville Now More Popular Than Twitter
2. Farmville Crosses 50 Million Users
3. Farmville.com To Host Farmville Outside of Facebook
4. Farmville Hits 60 Million Users
5. The Basics Of Farmville