Zynga's IPO is coming up fast, so the company is somewhat constrained as to what they can say and how they can say it. Numbers, however, can speak quite effectively, and the AppData numbers today are quite clear: Zynga's the top dog in social games. The top 5 games in Daily Average Users (DAU) today are CityVille, CastleVille, FarmVille, Texas HoldEm Poker, and Words With Friends, with The Sims Social from Electronic Arts in the number 6 position. The numbers range from 10 million for CityVille down to 5.7 million for Words With Friends, though The Sims Social is only slightly behind at 5.6 million.
Words With Friends has gained 500,000 users in the past week, which might logically be partially attributed to Alec Baldwin's getting kicked off a plane for playing the game. Still, the title has been showing growth over the last month (it was at 4.8 million DAU a month ago). The Sims Social, on the other hand, has been fading, dropping from 6.1 million DAU a month ago to its current point (their Monthly Average Users show a steady decline, from over 35 million to less than 29 million).
The social game market is changing, as more titles enter the market, budgets for both development and marketing get bigger, and the stakes get higher. You might reasonably expect 2012 to be a volatile year for many companies and titles in the social game market. What will Zynga do with the $1 billion war chest that the IPO will deliver?
