Zynga claims top Facebook app developer status

Check that figure again: 40.4 million people are playing Zynga's Facebook games a month, according to new research from AllFacebook.

Zynga is trumpeting the figures, since they suggest it's overtaken rival RockYou, which has 39.7 million monthly active users according to AllFacebook.

Another site, AppData, puts Zynga on 40 million and RockYou on 39.8 million. Either way, Zynga appears to have taken top spot.

Both sites suggest that the top five is rounded out by LivingSocial, Slide and Playfish, in that order.

The relevance for PocketGamer.biz is that social games firms like Zynga and Playfish are looking to turn their Facebook fanbases into paying users on iPhone.

Zynga has released Live Poker, Mafia Wars and Scramble on the App Store, while Playfish's first iPhone game Who Has the Biggest Brain? is currently riding high in the iPhone charts.

VentureBeat reckons Zynga is on course to generate $40 million of revenues this year from its social games, thanks mainly to sales of virtual items on its web games.

The company will be hoping that once Apple launches micro-transactions as part of the iPhone 3.0 software this summer, it'll be able to capitalise in a similar way on iPhone.

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