Facebook Inc. (FB): Europe Game Devs Flourishing on Social

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) gained a lot of users and kept them on the site for long periods of time, as its gallery of social games exploded, with help from Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ:ZNGA). But once Facebook switched its layout to the Timeline format, the games became more difficult to locate, and Zynga suffered dramatically. But it seems now that, as game developers have had an opportunity to adjust to the new layout, they have started to make new inroads, and Zynga has been bypassed in the social gaming experience on Facebook’s platform.

And the main source of all this development has been Europe. As games have become more interactive and more social – and users are finding it easier to access games on their mobile devices through apps and be able to resume their games on the Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) site when they change from mobile to a computer – the gaming aspect of Facebook has been a bit of a resurgence. And Europe has been the catalyst.

The head of European gaming for Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) noted that just one year ago, nine of the top 10 game-development companies on the social platform were from outside Europe. Now, however, six of the top 10 are from the EU. The top game right now is called Candy Crush Saga, which was designed by King.com. While these new games aren’t innovative, they more readily embrace social, and that helped them develop a real appeal. because users can play with their friends more easily than past generations of games.

Candy Crush Saga is being played by 9.7 million users every day, according to the latest data. And King.com reports that its collections of games are being played about 5 billion times per month across all platforms. But it has really taken off since hooking up with Facebook Inc. (NASDA:FB).

While that number seems impressive, is it organic or does it come from the partnership with Facebook?