Zynga daily active users fall by 50 percent

Daily active users (DAUs) for Zynga games fell from 60 million in the third quarter of 2012 to 30 million in the third quarter of 2013, the social game company announced today as part of its latest earnings report.

Monthly active users (MAUs) plummeted to 133 million in the third quarter of 2013, compared to 311 million last year. Monthly unique users (MUUs) fell 45 percent year-over-year from 177 million to 97 million, Zynga said.

Overall, for the third quarter ended September 30, Zynga revenue fell 36 percent year-over-year to $203 million. The social game company posted a net loss of $68,000 for the period, significantly better than the net loss of $53 million booked a year ago.

Online game revenue was $174 million during the quarter, down 39 percent compared to the third quarter of 2012. FarmVille 2 (22 percent), Zynga Poker (19 percent), and FarmVille (18 percent) were the biggest drivers of revenue for Zynga during the quarter.

Advertising revenue fell 9 percent to $28 million.

"Our teams are working hard to compete more aggressively on the web, move to mobile, and develop new hits, and I am happy with the early progress we have made," Zynga CEO Don Mattrick said. "We believe our top franchises, Zynga Poker, FarmVille and Words With Friends can be evergreen in terms of consumer interest and we are focused on growing these franchises in fiscal year 2014."

Mattrick was hired as CEO in July 2013, replacing Mark Pincus.

Zynga also announced today that it has hired Clive Downie as chief operating officer, effective November 4, 2013. Downie joins Zynga from DeNA, where he served as CEO of DeNA West. He also worked at Electronic Arts as vice president of marketing.