AppData: Ranking of social game vendors on Facebook platform in August 2011

Ranking of game manufacturers on Facebook platform in August 2011

Data from market research company AppData on September 8, 2011 showed that Electronic Arts has become the second largest social game manufacturer on Facebook, second only to Zynga.

EA's rise in the rankings came as its recently launched The Sims Social became the fastest-growing game on Facebook over the past week, and also because of its roughly $1 billion acquisition of PopCap, which owns Facebook games such as Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma Blitz. EA's acquisition of PopCap was completed last month.

Zynga's lack of branded games may eventually hurt its long-term prospects, but it currently has hits like FarmVille, CityVille, and Empires and Allies.

Unlike Groupon, which faces increasing scrutiny and potential delays, Zynga's IPO plans appear to be on track. But ultimately, investors may want to know how Zynga plans to deal with increasing competition from companies with branded games.

Other games that are growing fast include The Smurfs, which is now the second-fastest-growing Facebook game after The Sims, and Kabam plans to launch a game themed after The Godfather.

EA initially gained a foothold in the social gaming market by acquiring Playfish, and then last year it used the resulting resources to focus on more games, including The Sims, FIFA and more.

According to AppData, as of yesterday, EA had 71.5 million monthly active users, but that's still far behind Zynga's 275.5 million. In third place is German social game maker Wooga, which has 38.5 million monthly active users.

EA's No. 1 game on Facebook is The Sims Social, which has nearly 30 million monthly active users and about 7.8 million daily active users. That's comparable to Zynga's No. 4 Facebook game, FarmVille, which has 35 million monthly active users and 8 million daily active users. EA's No. 2 game is Bejeweled, which has nearly 10 million monthly active users.

Both companies believe that social gaming will become a major business in the future. Market research firm SuperData released a report last week predicting that the North American social gaming market will grow 35% to $1.4 billion this year.