FarmVille makes more cash than ever with half the players, what gives?

In the first quarter of this year ending March 2011, Zynga generated about $235 million in revenue. Compared to last year's 89 million players, FarmVille has half the monthly players at 39 million. So, how did the game end up making more money than ever with half of its player base? According to VentureBeat, it's all about the content, baby.

Zynga released more content to FarmVille this year than ever before, with a full-blown expansion in English Countryside and more updates than you can shake a strawberry at. It's said that only 1 to 3 percent of social gamers pay, so either FarmVille's coveted 1 to 3 percent has been there all along, or the company has raked in new paying players with flashy content.

Considering the back lashing we read on the forums daily, we'll go with the latter. And this 1 to 3 percent of FarmVille players doesn't even need to pay that much for Zynga to make some serious dough.

According to VentureBeat's math, players only need to put up $10.67 to $31.66 USD to have filled Zynga's immense pockets. In comparison, over 11 million nerds fork up about $15 every month to play World of Warcraft. That says nothing else about Zynga's 1 percent other than it is massive in comparison to the competition.

For Zynga, the best way to generate increased revenue is simple: introduce more free and paid content, and fast. And not every game makes money. Treasure Isle, for instance, is reported to make little money by Zynga in its IPO paperwork. And according to VentureBeat, paying gamers stick around for 10 to 25 months. So, if Zynga hopes to keep making more dough, perhaps we can expect the next big FarmVille expansion to launch before next January.

Are you a paying FarmVille player? How do you think Zynga entices players to pay, and have you ever considered paying up for virtual goods? Share with us in the comments. Add Comment.