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Facebook gamers now number 235 million, 15 percent more than last year

Facebook gamers now number 235 million, 15 percent more than last year

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The number of Facebook users who play games on the platform has increased by 30 million over the past year.

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Facebook App Center logo
Facebook App Center logo

The number of users who play games on Facebook has increased by more than 15 percent since last year, jumping from 205 million to 235 million, according to new data released by the company. A significant amount of the growth has been driven by Facebook's relatively new App Center feature, which is upping both install and return play rates.

When encountering games through the App Center, users are 2.4 times more likely to take the plunge and install them than when using the older system. Perhaps more importantly, 35 percent of those users return to play the game again the next day, with a further 17 percent returning within a week — in the past month alone, the App Center has counted 150 million users, though its total number of "likes" currently stands at just 7.6 million.

Revealed during a talk at GDC Europe, the new figures come just a week after Facebook launched its first real-money gambling game, dubbed Bingo Friendzy. Available exclusively to UK residents over the age of 18, activity from the app is specifically restricted from appearing in other users' feeds. It is not yet clear whether Facebook has plans to launch similar games in more heavily regulated markets such as the US.