Zynga’s older games still make the most money

We all know that Zynga’s games generate a lot of money, but the company just revealed some information that will probably surprise many social gamers: it’s the oldest games that prove to be the biggest moneymakers.

During the earnings call yesterday, Zynga COO John Schappert noted that five games in particular were instrumental for increasing bookings. Café World, FarmVille, FrontierVille, and CityVille all delivered stunning results, as did Texas HoldEm Poker (which is particularly impressive, since it’s been online for four years now).

Equally interesting is the fact that Zynga’s newer games didn’t add to bookings anywhere near as much as their predecessors because they have a lot more non-paying players. That said, CastleVille was an exception to this rule, even though it launched late last quarter.

Some games, however, totally failed during Q4. Case in point: Mafia Wars 2 lost nearly ¾ of its monthly active users and over 4/5 of its daily active users. However, thanks to the growth of games like CastleVille, Empires & Allies, and some other recent titles, the losses were successfully countered.

[via Inside Social Games]

David Laprad