PopCap and Wooga are the gainers, Zynga the big loser among this week's Top 25 Facebook games of December

We're now in the third week of December, which means it's time to check back in on the Top 25 Facebook games of December and examine their traffic. Since we're a day away from the possible end of the world, this could be the last of these traffic updates (sorry, we hope you understand). As per usual, we're looking at games' daily active user numbers, which is the best measure of a title's core audience. This week, we've moved up into the top half of the list, which means we're starting to see numbers with dramatic differences between each of the chart positions. Here's what we've looked at so far: December 13, 2012: No. 18 (Monster World) through No. 13 (FarmVille) December 6, 2012: No. 25 (DoubleDown Casino) through No. 19 (Pyramid Solitaire Saga) This week, we'll look at No. 12 through No. 7. 12. SongPop FreshPlanet's SongPop is down from 2.8 million DAU to 2.2 million. SongPop's been an interesting case, having only launched in May and enjoying a meteoric traffic rise after Mark Zuckerberg shared he was playing the game. SongPop peaked in September with 4.7 million DAU, but it's been losing traffic since then. Currently, the game's still dramatically shedding users, but the first two to three months after a game's peak often see the most severe traffic drop before the numbers start leveling out. That said, it looks like SongPop's going to be somewhere between No. 16 and No. 20 next month. 11. Bejeweled Blitz PopCap's Bejeweled Blitz is actually up a little, from 2.7 million DAU to 2.9 million. As we've noted in the past, the game hit a low point of 2.3 million DAU back in September but has steadily been on the rise ever since. October 2010 was the game's bet month with nearly 4.6 million DAU and a subsequent drop-off, but it saw strong growth earlier this year and surged up to 3.4 million DAU in April. If the gains continue, then Bejeweled Blitz might very well be in the top 10 Facebook games of January. 10. Bubble Safari Zynga's Bubble Safari is another title that's seen some losses so far this month, going from 2.9 million DAU at the start of December to 2.6 million (though it's dropped as low as 2.4 million so far). Bubble Safari launched in May, but didn't begin seeing serious growth until June, when it peaked at 7.4 million DAU. The traffic loss after that high point have been constant, though, and doesn't really show any sign of slowing down. It's current DAU/MAU percentage is sitting a little over 12 percent, too, which doesn't bode well for the game since titles are considered healthy when they have a DAU/MAU rate over 15 percent. Based on these losses, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect Bubble Safari to show up around No. 15 on next month's list. 9. ChefVille Zynga's ChefVille is down from 3.6 million DAU to 3.1 million. Like many of Zynga's recent big launches, the game started off strong in September with a high point of 7.2 million DAU but it's been losing traffic ever since. Since October, the losses have slowed down and its numbers have been hovering somewhere between the 3 and 4 million marks, but it looks like things are starting to drop off again. If ChefVille continues to lose traffic at this rate, it'll probably drop down tot the No. 13 spot or so on next month's list. 8. Diamond Dash Wooga's Diamond Dash is another older game that saw a small uptick this month, going from 3.7 million DAU up to 3.9 million. Wooga launched Diamond Dash in late 2010 and it's seen strong growth ever since then, hitting a high point of 4.8 million DAU in March. As opposed to other games that peak, Diamond Dash has seen some noticeable traffic peaks and valleys in the months since, but December looks like a period of growth (probably helped by users adopting the game's mobile version). If the gains continue, then it's likely Diamond Dash might actually be close to the No. 5 spot in January. 7. CityVille 2 December has been a rough month for CityVille 2, seeing the game tumble from 3.8 million DAU to 1 million and there's still over a week to go. The game launched in late October and spiked up to 5.4 million DAU in mid-November, but users just haven't stayed with the game since then. Looking the title's DAU/MAU percentage shows at least one factor in this drop: The game's DAU/MAU rate is sitting at a stunning 3.47 percent. At this rate, the game won't even be on Top 25 list next month, which is an even more dramatic traffic fall than The Ville. All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for next week’s continuation of our Top 25 gainers and losers, when we look at No. 6 through No. 1 on the list.

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PopCap and Wooga are the gainers, Zynga the big loser among this week's Top 25 Facebook games of December

Mike Thompson

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Mike Thompson