CastleVille is the second most played Facebook game daily in 22 days

If there's one takeaway from this, it's that 'Ville games still got it. Zynga's CastleVille has surpassed the likes of FarmVille, The Sims Social and Zynga Poker to become the second most played game daily on Facebook with 8.1 million returning every day. The game is now in the top five for monthly players, with 27.6 million, according to AppData. And it did it in just 22 days.

As a result, CastleVille is both faster and slower than CityVille was a year. The latter reached nearly as many monthly players in almost half the time, but didn't amass as many daily players as Zynga Dallas's new hotness did last month. For what it's worth, CastleVille is far stronger out of the gate where it counts: daily players, the best measure of how gripping a Facebook game is.

This explosive growth can be chalked up to a few factors, but one stands out the most: the Zynga fan base. CastleVille released to a pool of over 200 million able-handed social gamers practically twitching at the thought of a new game to play. Of course, Zynga took great advantage of this, employing several cross promotions across its existing stable of successful games. "Reach Level 5 in CastleVille and get a free Cow" ... or something like that.

That easily explains the burst of growth, but what is it about CastleVille that's drawing more players in than nearly all of Zynga's games? While the game is certainly the most robust, full-featured and gorgeous 'Ville game to date, it's still a 'Ville game. Could it simply be that it's new and shinier than the rest, or is the 'Ville formula really still the best way to approach social games?

[Via All Facebook]

Are you playing CastleVille every day? Why do you think the game is drawing so many players in every day? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.