Candy Crush Saga and ChefVille this week's gainer and loser among the Top 25 games of September 2012

September is coming to a close, which means it's time to look at the top titles on the list of the Top 25 Facebook games of September. This is usually the section of our Top 25 list that sees the least amount of movement. This is because —even though games are still seeing dramatic traffic changes in terms of daily active users— the audience sizes are so massive that it tends to take a while for them to change positions on the chart. We weren't able to check out the traffic changes during the first week of September because of an error in data reporting on Facebook's end, but here's what we've looked at so far this month: September 13, 2012: No. 18 (Slotomania) through No. 13 (Dragon City) September 20, 2012: No. 12 (CityVille) through No. 7 (Bubble Witch Saga) This week, we’re examining at No. 6 through No. 1. T6: SongPop FreshPlanet's SongPop is back to 4.2 million DAU, where it started the month. Since it debuted on Facebook in June, SongPop's seen a meteoric rise in traffic thanks in large part to Mark Zuckerberg playing the game and the subsequent media attention. The game's traffic gains have been slowing down over the past two months, though, and it looks like it may not grow past this month's peak of 4.7 million DAU. As a result, it doesn't look likely that the game will change position next month. 5. Candy Crush Saga King.com's Candy Crush Saga is continuing to grow, going from 4.5 million DAU to a new peak of 4.9 million. The match-3 game's proven a solid hit since it launched in April, seeing an initial surge of traffic from cross-promotion in the other "Saga" games, but its traffic has continued to improve steadily. Gains have become more stretched out, but it doesn't look like Candy Crush Saga is going to start losing traffic any time soon. With its new high point, it looks like Candy Crush Saga will probably move up another spot on the list due to the drop in Bubble Safari's traffic next month. 4. Bubble Safari Zynga's Bubble Safari is down from 5 million DAU to 4.5 million. After it launched in May, the game saw its traffic peak in June with 7.4 million DAU. Like most of Zynga's recent games to take the top spot on our Top 25 Facebook games, the title's been seeing a steady traffic decline after it shot up to the top of the list due to Zynga's marketing power. Since the beginning of July, Bubble Safari has lost roughly 2.2 million DAU, over a fourth of its traffic. As it stands, the game will probably be down to the No. 5 position next month. 3. Words With Friends Words With Friends is actually holding steady at 6.1 million DAU, the same position it was in at the start of September. The game has generally been one of Zynga's top-performing titles over the past couple of years, though its traffic has fallen off since it hit its March peak of 9 million DAU. That said, the percentage of daily active users to monthly active users has generally stayed above 40 percent during its entire history. For context: A game with a DAU/MAU percentage is considered to be extremely healthy. Words With Friends will probably move back up to No. 2 next month, now that its traffic is better than ChefVille's. 2. Texas HoldEm Poker Like Words with Friends, Texas HoldEm Poker is right back where it started: 6.9 million DAU. The game hit a new peak in July with 7.6 million DAU, but it's dropped off a bit in the time since. This is in keeping with the game's traffic patterns over the past few years, though. Usually, Texas HoldEm Poker will perform steadily with gradual growth, see a small surge to a new high point, fall off a bit and then start the cycle over. Even though it hasn't grown over the past month, Texas HoldEm Poker will probably be back in the top spot due to ChefVille's shrinking audience. 1. ChefVille After going up to 7.2 million DAU on Sept. 2, Zynga's ChefVille has seen a dramatic fall-off in terms of user numbers and is now at 5.7 million DAU. The game launched in August and saw a big marketing push from Zynga towards the end of the month, which led to its traffic peak in early September. As was the case with The Ville, though, users don't seem to be sticking around. On top of that, the game's DAU/MAU ratio is barely at 10 percent; with many games at this point, it's often considered a matter of time before they're sunsetted. Zynga probably won't be doing that any time soon, but ChefVille will likely be in the No. 3 or No. 4 spot next month, depending on how traffic continues to fall. All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Come back on Monday, October 1, for the Top 25 Facebook games of October 2012.

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Candy Crush Saga and ChefVille this week's gainer and loser among the Top 25 games of September 2012

Mike Thompson

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Mike Thompson