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Electronic Arts is now within touching distance of becoming the first games company to topple Cityville, the Zynga sensation that holds the record as the most popular Facebook game of all time.
According to Appdata, The Sims Social now drawn in 65 million monthly active users (MAUs) – the closest it has ever got to Cityville’s current 71 million user mark.
However, both games are a fair distance behind Zynga’s all-time MAU record.
In March 2010, Zynga’s Farmville peaked at 83.8 monthly active users just nine months after its launch. In January this year, Zynga surpassed that record with Cityville, though it is unknown what the game’s peak MAU score is.
But the game’s popularity has been in slow decline for several months.
EA, meanwhile, has amassed about 15 million Sims Social users in the past two weeks, and another 15 million the week prior. At current growth rates EA could reach the breakthrough before November.
The Sims Social, built by UK outfit Playfish, launched late in August.
The Sims is one of the best selling PC franchises in history, selling more than 100 million games worldwide.
Kristian Segerstrale, the founder of EA’s social games group Playfish, recently claimed that bringing one of EA’s most popular game franchises to Facebook has “redefined the meaning of social in video games.”
But Zynga is fighting back. The group is introducing famous household names within its immensely popular Facebook games as a means to counter EA’s brand appeal. The first in its new initiative is a collaboration with Lucasfilm, which will incorporate the Indiana Jones franchise into Zynga’s new Adventure World game.
Zynga is also preparing Mafia Wars 2; the company’s first ever full sequel.
