It’s been 10 years since y’all starting tilling your Facebook fields with Farmville, and Zynga is celebrating by announcing that the farming franchise is getting a new mobile game.
Farmville first came out June 19, 2009. It became a sensation on Facebook, but it also received criticism for how it had players sending requests to friends on the social network. This didn’t come close to derailing the franchise, which went on to spawn three more games over the years and result in 700 million installs over the past decade. And Zynga appears healthy again after years of struggling as it shifted from Facebook and Farmville dominance to mobile.
The new Farmville game is coming the Helsinki studio. “It will introduce players to new characters and brings an exciting twist to the FarmVille experience,” Zynga said.
As part of the celebration, Zynga’s adding Trisha Yearwood’s “Every Girl in This Town” and likeness to FarmVille 2: Country Escape, which came out in 2014. It’s the first of a number of celebration announcements Zynga’s making for the Farmville franchise.
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The Farmville empire these days consists of:
- Farmville (the O.G. on Facebook)
- Farmville 2 (Facebook)
- Farmville 2: Country Escape (mobile)
- Farmville: Tropic Escape (mobile)
- Farmville: Harvest Swap (a match-3 mobile game, a side trip of sorts for the franchise)
Zynga declined to say how many of those 700 million installs came from mobile and how many people still play Farmville and Farmville 2 on Facebook. So I asked mobile research firm Sensor Tower what it’s gathered on Farmville’s mobile games over the years.
“Worldwide combined downloads of the three mobile FarmVille games — FarmVille 2: Country Escape, FarmVille: Tropic Escape, and FarmVille: Harvest Swap — have reached 93 million, with gross revenue at $311 million,” Sensor Tower’s Randy Nelson said. “The titles accounted for combined player spending of $10.7 million worldwide in Q1 2019, down 10% from $11.9 million in Q1 2018.”
Sensor Tower broke it down as follows:
- FarmVille 2: Country Escape (2014): 69 million installs, $229 million revenue
- FarmVille: Tropic Escape (2015): 17 million installs, $58 million revenue
- FarmVille: Harvest Swap (match-3, 2016): 7.5 million installs, $24 million revenue
Twenty percent of the installs for these three have come from the United States, along with 62% of the revenue, Sensor Tower said. The breakdown regions with the most downloads and revenue follows:
- Top three countries per title (downloads):
- FarmVille 2: Country Escape: U.S. (19%), Turkey (8%), Brazil (7%)
- FarmVille: Tropic Escape: U.S. (26%), China (6%), Great Britain (5%)
- FarmVille: Harvest Swap: U.S. (25%), China (11%), Germany (4%)
- Top three countries per title (revenue):
- FarmVille 2: Country Escape: U.S. (60%), Great Britain (6%), Germany (6%)
- FarmVille: Tropic Escape: U.S. (68%), Great Britain (5%), Canada (5%)
- FarmVille: Harvest Swap: U.S. (62%), Great Britain (6%), Germany (4%)
Zynga said it’ll release more news on Farmville anniversary celebrations and the upcoming game in the future.
