Games are being credited as allowing Facebook to become the most visited website in the US, outing Google as the region’s most popular destination.
According to data collected by Hitwise, the social networking site overtook the search engine last week for the longest sustained time. Facebook’s home page saw 7.07 per cent of all traffic while Google saw 7.03 per cent. Facebook has overtaken the search engine before, but this represents the longest sustained time at the top spot.
Much of the success has been drawn from the growing popularity of Facebook gaming, with titles such as Zynga’s FarmVille garnering more than 83 million players. Facebook has been such a fertile ground for gaming that Electronic Arts invested $300 million to own Facebook developer Playfish.
At GDC, Playfish CEO, Kristian Segerstrale, identified Facebook as the biggest growth opportunity for gaming, saying: “For first time as an industry we’re able to bring games to where people hang out, and not identify players as ‘gamers’.”
Source: The Times