Facebook has more gamers than Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo combined?

Facebook games are big, but they might not be that huge just yet. At the company's London edition of the F8 conference, Facebook director of partnerships Ethan Beard said that it has more gamers than Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft combined, TechRadar reports. We're not exactly certain what measure Beard was referring to, because our math adds up a bit differently.

"Social design inside social gaming has driven fantastic growth," Beard told F8 conference-goers. "It's revolutionising gaming. We have over 200 million social gamers on Facebook every month; that's more Facebook gamers than the Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo combined."

But after looking at the number of units sold by each company, compared to Facebook's reported 200 million monthly players, we're not 100 percent on board with that call. Nintendo has shipped over 87 million Wii units and over 147 million Nintendo DS systems to date, as of June 30. And Microsoft has sold over 57 million Xbox 360 consoles as of Sept. 30, while Sony sold nearly 52 million PlayStation 3 rigs as of July 31.

Social games have no doubt garnered more players in such a short amount of time than any gaming platform to date. But, if you look at the amount of consoles shipped and sold by all three major manufacturers, Beard's claim appears to fall a bit short. That is, unless Beard is talking online gamers. Then Facebook just might have the big three beat, to which Beard said, "These aren't games with friends sprinkled on top; it's more about social interactions with gaming on top."

Do you think there are more Facebook gamers than there are of all three major game consoles combined? Will there be a time when social gaming is bigger than traditional gaming across the board? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.