We reported a week ago that Zynga had a surprise hit on its hands in FarmVille 2, the sequel to its incredibly successful, universally mocked cow-clicking game: The game hit 50 million users last week, one month after its launch, and has surged past 60 million monthly users.
Now, in its third-quarter earnings report, Zynga has put some numbers around what that means for revenues.
Of those 60 million users, 9 million play it daily, according to AppData. And those loyal, frequent players tend to be the ones who spend money to get an edge in the game.
Zynga has "monetized" some 500,000 FarmVille 2 players—meaning it's persuaded them to plunk down cash for Zynga's in-game virtual currency, which can be spent on decorations or points that let them play longer or get past obstacles.
That's a crucial base, considering Zynga only has 3 million players who spend money in a given month—a figure that dropped a perilous 28 percent from the second quarter to the third quarter, as Zynga's hit Draw Something game faded.
In a call with analysts after the earnings release, CEO Mark Pincus said that FarmVille 2 players spent $950,000 in a single day on the game.
If Zynga can sustain that, that means it just launched a $300 million-a-year franchise.
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