Analyst: Zynga's Castleville Success Offset By Other Declining Titles

A new report from analyst firm Cowen and Company suggests that, while social games giant Zynga has seen great success from its latest release Castleville, the decline in users for its other titles has offset much of the potential growth. Castleville launched earlier this month, and two weeks after its release had already reached 17.4 million users, making it the sixth biggest game on Facebook, in terms of audience size. Cowen's Doug Creutz notes that the title has achieved success, and is currently now tied for second place with Farmville with 6.9 million DAUs a piece. However, the report explains that despite the increase in users, "November has to be a disappointment" for the company due to a decline in users for its other titles. Zynga's other nine major Facebook titles saw a collective decline of 1 million DAUs in the two weeks before Castleville's launch. In the two weeks that followed, they saw further DAU decline of 2.8 million. Creutz suggests that current Zynga gamers are simply moving from old Zynga games to new ones, rather than the game picking up brand new players or these current users playing multiple Zynga games at once. He also notes that while DAU growth for Castleville was 6 million in its first week, the increase during week two was only 900,000 in comparison. The report adds to growing concerns over Zynga's future. Other recent reports suggest that Zynga employees are treated badly, while elsewhere it is noted that one of Zynga's latest games, Mafia Wars 2, has fallen relatively flat with players, dropping from a high of 2.5 million monthly users after its October launch to a current mark of 900,000.