PopCap has announced that the Facebook version of its Bejeweled game, Bejeweled Blitz, has attracted more than five million monthly users.
Five million! 75 per cent of whom are female. So far, more than one billion sessions of the game have been played, too.
Not bad for your first toe-dip into social gaming. The game has been in beta on Facebook for the last six months, but launches officially today.
The game sees people playing one-minute rounds of Bejeweled - which has been a proven hit on mobile - aiming to get the highest score possible.
PopCap's chief creative officer Jason Kapalka says the idea was originally an in-joke. "Whod think anyone would play a casual game with such a frenzied time limit? But it turned out the one-minute timer actually made the game more accessible, as a bite-size entertainment for people busy doing other things on Facebook."
Meanwhile, PopCap's head of online and social projects John Vechey gives as good a summary of the appeal of social gaming as we've seen: "The social nature of the game felt like the missing link. Playing Bejeweled on your own was always fun, but playing with and against family and friends takes it to another level."
PopCap's announcement of the news says that it's "not providing any details" of future plans to launch Facebook versions of games like Peggle, Zuma, Bookworm, Plants vs Zombies and Chuzzle.
We're assuming this is code for 'they'll be launched as soon as we can get 'em live'.
News
Contributing Editor
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)
Top Stories
News
8 hours, 15 minutes ago
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
News
11 hours, 6 minutes ago
Mobile Movers: All the latest appointments and job moves from around the industry
News
11 hours, 51 minutes ago
Squad Busters has 20 million pre registrations with 30 million in its sights
News
12 hours, 13 minutes ago
Carry1st's African Cup to feature Call of Duty: Mobile tournament with $15,000 prize pool
News
8 hours, 15 minutes ago
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
Feature
10 hours, 27 minutes ago
Apple and Nintendo's Delta blues: A legal timebomb or just the new normal?
News
11 hours, 6 minutes ago
Mobile Movers: All the latest appointments and job moves from around the industry
Events
GameDev Atlantic 2024 | May 4th | |
LA Games Conference 2024 | North America | May 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |