Phrases passes FarmVille as Facebook's top app
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
By David Goldman, staff writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Tending to virtual farms was so last week.
After a 15-month run as the top Facebook application, FarmVille was finally overtaken Wednesday, according to AppData. It was replaced by Phrases, an app that lets Facebook users post quotes, images and quizzes on their news feeds.
Phrases had 54.4 million users over the past month, compared with 53.9 million for FarmVille, AppData found.
The number of people using Zynga's FarmVille has plunged from an all-time high of 83.8 million users set in March. That was the month when Facebook stopped delivering application notifications and updates to a user's friends -- an endless stream of annoying, useless drivel to some, but a source of free advertising for the app developers.
Zynga has seen a decline in net application usage ever since, but it is still by far Facebook's largest developer. It also makes Texas HoldEm poker, FrontierVille and Mafia Wars, which rank third, fourth and fifth on AppData's list of top Facebook apps.
What's stunning is that Phrases was able to overtake FarmVille without a U.S. audience. Takeoff Monkey, Phrases' developer, discontinued the app in the United States two weeks ago. The developer said it was a "tough decision" due to "the support of our fans in the U.S.," and it gave no timeline for restoring American access.
The number of people who use Phrases on a daily basis has fallen dramatically to just 5.5 million after it stopped supporting the app in the United States. It had 8.1 million users prior to shutting down U.S. operations, AppData said.
FarmVille still easily holds the top spot for daily users with 16.6 million people who visit the app each day. Windows Live Messenger is the No. 2 Facebook app for daily use with 9.8 million visitors per day.
"It's true, Phrases has the largest number of monthly active users, but it is important to note that the way that users engage with particular applications can vary pretty highly," said Justin Smith, founder of Inside Network, AppData's parent company. "Games like FarmVille tend to engage users for a longer period of time and have a revenue model through virtual goods."
Still, Phrases continues to capture Facebook users' interest, adding 2.3 million users over the past week. FarmVille lost 395,000 users in the same time span.
Facebook, Zynga and Takeoff Monkey could not immediately be reached for comment.
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
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