Eric von Coelln digs into the numbers behind social media, marketing, casual games and more.
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Milestones

I started creating these charts for myself since I didn’t see any similar chart tracking what games had hit certain Daily and Monthly Active User milestones and will do my best to keep it up to date. Application launch dates are approximated and I welcome input from developers to clarify those dates. FarmVille of course has blown away these milestones, crossing 30 million DAU over 76 million MAU on 2/6/2010 (and still growin). I’ll add new high-water milestones as soon as someone matches FarmVille on the next tier up. Further below you will see a timeline of social games events that at this point just starts in January 2009 – appreciate additional support and input to make a more detailed timeline.

Daily Active Users for Facebook Games

10 Million DAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 7.5 mil DAU
8/25/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 65 13
11/19/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 50 27

7.5 million DAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 6 mil DAU
8/12/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 52 14
10/23/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 23 14
11/17/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 70 21

6 million DAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 5 mil DAU
8/6/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 46 8
8/12/2009 Farm Town 2/15/2009 178 21
9/9/2009 Mafia Wars 10/1/2008 343 13
10/13/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 13 4
10/27/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 49 4
12/29/2009 FishVille 11/7/2009 52 42

5 million DAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 4 mil DAU
7/22/2009 Farm Town 2/15/2009 157 19
7/29/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 38 7
8/27/2009 Mafia Wars 10/1/2008 330 36
10/1/2009 Pet Society 8/21/2008 406 64
10/9/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 9 2
10/18/2009 Restaurant City 3/24/2009 208 39
10/23/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 45 5
11/17/2009 FishVille 11/7/2009 10 2
12/17/2009 Zynga Poker 78

4 million DAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 3 mil DAU
7/3/2009 Farm Town 2/15/2009 138 37
7/22/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 31 9
7/22/2009 Mafia Wars 10/1/2008 294 34
7/29/2009 Pet Society 8/21/2008 342 119
9/9/2009 Restaurant City 3/24/2009 169 28
9/30/2009 Zynga Poker 69
10/7/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 7 1
10/18/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 40 11
11/15/2009 FishVille 11/7/2009 8 2
1/4/2010 PetVille 12/3/2009 32 26
3 million DAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch
4/1/2009 Pet Society 8/21/2008 223
5/27/2009 Farm Town 2/15/2009 101
6/18/2009 Mafia Wars 10/1/2008 260
7/13/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 22
7/23/2009 Zynga Poker
8/12/2009 Restaurant City 3/24/2009 141
10/6/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 6
10/7/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 29
10/22/2009 Bejeweled Blitz 3/21/2009 215
11/13/2009 FishVille 11/7/2009 6
12/9/2009 PetVille 12/3/2009 6

Monthly Active Users for Facebook Games

30 million MAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 25 mil MAU
8/26/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 66 7
11/27/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 58 30

25 million MAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 20 mil MAU
8/19/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 59 10
9/24/2009 Mafia Wars 10/1/2008 358 18
10/28/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 28 9
11/9/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 62 12
12/30/2009 FishVille 11/7/2009 53 30

20 Million MAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 15 mil MAU
8/9/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 49 11
9/6/2009 Mafia Wars 10/1/2008 340 36
10/16/2009 Pet Society 8/21/2008 421 66
10/19/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 19 5
10/28/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 50 8
11/30/2009 FishVille 11/7/2009 23 8
12/9/2009 Zynga Poker 142

15 Million MAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch Days Since Passed 15 mil MAU
7/20/2009 Zynga Poker 138
7/29/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 38 13
8/1/2009 Mafia Wars 10/1/2008 304 84
8/5/2009 Farm Town 2/15/2009 171 40
8/11/2009 Pet Society 8/21/2008 355 122
9/10/2009 YoVille 5/13/2008 485 40
9/24/2009 Restaurant City 3/24/2009 184 38
10/14/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 14 5
10/20/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 42 11
11/8/2009 Roller Coaster Kingdom 8/1/2009 99 20
11/22/2009 FishVille 11/7/2009 15 5
12/24/2009 PetVille 12/3/2009 21 10

10 Million MAU

Date Application Launched Days Since Launch
3/4/2009 Zynga Poker
4/11/2009 Pet Society 8/21/2008 233
5/9/2009 Mafia Wars 10/1/2008 220
6/26/2009 Farm Town 2/15/2009 131
7/16/2009 FarmVille 6/21/2009 25
8/1/2009 YoVille 5/13/2008 445
8/17/2009 Restaurant City 3/24/2009 146
10/9/2009 Café World 9/30/2009 9
10/9/2009 Happy Aquarium 9/8/2009 31
10/19/2009 Roller Coaster Kingdom 8/1/2009 79
10/31/2009 Bejeweled Blitz 3/21/2009 224
11/17/2009 FishVille 11/7/2009 10
12/14/2009 Happy Pets 11/13/2009 31
12/14/2009 PetVille 12/3/2009 11
12/31/2009 Zoo World
1/28/2010 Happy Island 12/15/2009 45

An Incomplete Timeline of Social Games on Facebook

1/1/2009 Zynga’s Texas Holdem Poker is #1 game on Facebook with 7.3 million MAU; #2 Pass a Drink (5.9 mil); #3 Lil Green Patch (5.9 mil); #4 Pet Society (4.9 mil); #5 Who Has the Biggest Brain (3.6 mil); #6 Word Challenge (3.5 mil); #7 Geo Challenge (3.4 mil); #8 Bowling Buddies (3.3 mil); #9 YoVille (3.0 mil); #10 Snowball Fight (2.9 mil) — See full list
2/24/2009 Mob Wars creator sues Zynga for Mafia Wars
3/4/2009 Zynga’s Texas Holdem the first game app to reach 10 million monthly active users
3/11/2009 Facebook launches redesign to homepage, introducing live stream
3/11/2010 Playdom (formerly YouPlus) emerges from stealth mode — see detials
3/24/2009 Playfish launces Restaurant City
3/26/2009 Zynga launches first pre-game interstitial of gifting in Mafia Wars
4/1/2009 Pet Society by Playfish first game app to 3 million daily active users
6/11/2009 First expansion in Mafia Wars launched: Cuba
6/21/2009 FarmVille launched by Zynga
7/3/2009 Slashkey’s Farm Town first game app to 4 million daily active users
7/22/2009 Farm Town first game app to 5 million daily active users
8/4/2009 FarmVille takes #1 spot in DAU from Farm Town
8/12/2009 First game App to cross 7.5 million DAU: FarmVille
8/18/2009 FarmVille launches first tractor
8/25/2009 First game App to cross 10 million DAU: FarmVille
8/26/2009 First game App to cross 30 million MAU: FarmVille
9/6/2009 First Fish Sim game to cross 1 million DAU: Fish World
9/10/2009 Zynga Farmville first launches a “lost ugly duckling” as new incentive to drive users to post social wall posts
9/10/2009 CrowdStar launches first of their “Happy” games (Happy Aquarium) with eye on comepting with top developers
9/11/2009 First game App to cross 15 million DAU: FarmVille
9/11/2009 First game App to cross 40 million MAU: FarmVille
9/25/2009 Second expansion in Mafia Wars launched: Moscow
9/27/2009 First game App to cross 50 million MAU: FarmVille
9/30/2009 Zynga launches Café World
10/2/2009 Modeling Income: The goal for most games seems to be around $25K/1M DAU, so a game doing 2M DAU should monetize around $1.5M per month. — Sean Ryan, Loki Partners
10/7/2009 FarmVille first game app to cross 20 million DAU
10/9/2009 Café World fastest game to reach 10 million DAU — in just 9 days after launch
10/18/2009 FarmVille first game app to cross 60 milloin MAU
10/31/2009 ScamVille brouhaha over offers in games — see details
11/9/2009 Electronic Arts buys Playfish for $400 million — see details
11/11/2009 Playdom raises first round of VC funding: $43 million on a $260 million pre-money valuation — see details
11/12/2009 Playdom buys developer Green Patch, acquiring (lil) Green Patch, (lil) Farm Life and others.
11/13/2009 FarmVille – 1st game App to cross 25 million DAU
11/27/2009 Café World – 2nd game to cross 30 million MAU
12/9/2009 PetVille the third successive release (joining Café World, FishVille) by Zynga to reach 3 million DAU in sixth day after launch
12/14/2009 FarmVille 2009 peak: 28.7 million DAU
12/16/2009 Modeling Income: Playdom CEO: conversion to pay range is 1-4%, ARPPU around $20, ARPU/month is 20-25 cents. http://bit.ly/7fbs6R
12/16/2009 Facebook changes developer policies, eliminating gifting interstitials, gating content based on number of friends playing
12/20/2009 Facebook policy change: Feed forms cannot be popped open without explicit user intent
1/6/2010 Modeling Income: Serious Business CEO: conversion to pay is 1%, ARPU is $0.45/month/DAU, 80% revenue from direct payments – Details
1/29/2010 FarmVille first game app to cross 75 million Monthly Active Users
2/5/2010 Facebook begins rolling out new homepage, eliminating bookmarks and notifications in the footer of every page and moving them to left column and top of page respectively; launches new Games Dashboard
2/6/2010 FarmVille is the first app to pass 30 million daily active users
3/1/2010 Facebook to eliminate all application-to-user and user-to-user notifications from applications