Following a smaller downturn in March, 18 of April’s top 25 titles saw a decline in MAU, with leading developer Zynga suffering the most.
The massively popular FarmVille lost over 4.4 million MAU, although the app remained the top game in April with 78.4 million players. Zynga titles lost over ten million MAU in total last month, according to analysis by Inside Social Games (via IndustryGamers).
The second largest Facebook game of the month, RockYou’s Birthday Cards, lost five million users from a player base of 39 million in March, while MindJolt’s MindJolt Games shed more than seven million MAUs month-on-month, representing over a third of its player base.
Dear valued player, Following an incredible 11 years since its initial launch back in 2009, we are officially announcing the closure of the original FarmVille game on Facebook.
The video game industry is not one where originality reigns supreme. Sure, there are definitely Big Ideas that change the landscape of gaming, but for the most part publishers are content to slowly improve on stuff that’s already proven profitable.
But sometimes imitation goes beyond mere flattery to become a fad, when seemingly the entire video game world gets fixated on a single idea and starts churning out endless copies. We’re seeing it now with Fortnite and the Battle Royale craze, but this isn’t a new thing. Let’s blow in the cartridges and revisit some of the most potent fads in video game history.
I thought that too until he mentioned "paradigm change" with the addition of a competitive two-player mode. Obvious fumble, and we all do it, but it's a pet peeve that I should work on.
Thomas from Lizard Lounge writes, "What a time to be alive! Farming Simulator has released its eighth instalment, you too can discover the mysterious and glamorous life of a slice of bread, and someone has released a game about grass and it’s not even the interesting kind of grass. Walking simulators, have you heard of those? Games like Gone Home, Serena, The Beginner’s Guide, in which you walk around a world and stuff happens at you?"
