Zynga sheds daily users as it announces $15.8M loss

Farmville maker Zynga has announced a $15.8M loss for the second quarter of 2013, as daily users of its social games fell by 45 per cent over the last 12 months.

Thirty-nine million people now play Zynga titles on a daily basis, down from 72M this time last year. Alongside the drop in active daily players, the number of people playing a Zynga game at least once a month also dropped 39 per cent year-on-year to 187M, down from 306M in the second quarter of 2012.

The social gaming giant announced revenues of $231M for the three-month period ending June 30, down from $332M the year before.

Zynga released six new titles in the last quarter: Hidden Shadows, War of the Fallen, Draw Something 2, Battlestone, Solstice Arena, and Running With Friends.

Zynga has had a rough time of late and is embarking on a restructuring process that will remove 520 jobs from the company.

"The next few years will be a time of phenomenal growth in our space and Zynga has incredible assets to take advantage of the market opportunity," said former Xbox boss and now Zynga CEO Don Mattrick.

"To do that, we need to get back to basics and take a longer term view on our products and business, develop more efficient processes and tighten up execution all across the company. We have a lot of hard work in front of us and as we reset, we expect to see more volatility in our business than we would like over the next two to four quarters. I'm privileged to lead Zynga and I look forward to spending more time with our players, employees and shareholders."

Zynga previously announced a profit of $4.1M for the first quarter of the year.