Social Gaming is Winning: 375 million play games on Facebook every month

The numbers are big on Social Gaming. Every one seems to be playing games – on social media. Facebook, with 1.3 billion active users has revealed that 375 million Facebook users play at least one Facebook-platformed game every month! That's a lot of Candy Crush and Farmville.

Imagine this: 735 million "play this or that game with me" requests are sent out every day on Facebook alone. This is big news for both game developers and brands that have 'social gaming' in their engagement strategy. In this game of eyeballs, social is becoming a lot about gaming – and, yes, its across devices and platforms – meaning that it is something that's happening universally across iOS, Android and desktop.

An article in Mashable tells us that the average user who plays the same game on two or more platforms spends 3.3 times as much money on in-game purchases as people who just play on desktop, Facebook said. Cross-platform players are also far more likely to click on ads, and show other signs of engagement with the game.

Candy Crush Saga has held the title of most-popular game on Facebook for the past year. Not only that, it's the most popular Facebook app overall, according to analytics firm AppData. Candy Crush is closely followed by Farm Heroes Saga and Pet Rescue Saga. All three are products of King, which is preparing for its IPO, and has overtaken Zynga as the top Facebook games developer.

Here in the Middle East, we haven't seen a rush towards utilizing this phenomenon in brand-consumer engagement. Most of the well-followed games have been global in scale and approach. Perhaps its time for the Middle East marketer to take a fresh new look at social gaming...