It looks like a new kid is the hottest on the block not only in Zynga's world, but the Facebook games world at large. The Ville, Zynga's answer to EA and Playfish's The Sims Social, has climbed up the charts to become the number one game on Facebook. The "life and people simulator," according to designer Mark Skaggs, now welcomes 36.6 million monthly and 7.3 million daily players, according to AppData.That's about 1 million more monthly players than previous crown-holder Zynga Poker, but about 100,000 fewer daily players than the developer's long-time poker simulator. The answer to how exactly this two-week growth spurt occurred is simple: As per usual, Zynga leveraged its network of nearly 260 million monthly players.
If you've been playing Zynga's games in the past two weeks, you're already well aware that Zynga has been cross promoting The Ville to hell and back in every game from FarmVille to Hidden Chronicles, CityVille and CastleVille. This is par for the course for any new Zynga that the developer has an interest in seeing do well, but it's largely incestuous, for lack of a better word.
Sure, some of the players that latch onto a new Zynga game come from other game houses like EA, King.com or Wooga, but how many exactly? This writer is willing to bet not nearly as many the Zynga fans that logged in to complete the silly quest for goodies in their game of choice. Which begs one more question: Will this strategy sustain itself for another five years?
Are you digging The Ville? For how much longer will Zynga host the top games on Facebook using this strategy? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.