Facebook's desktop gaming revenue slips in the first quarter of 2014

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Facebook may be doing better when it comes to mobile advertising, but mobile gaming is still hurting the social network.

Market researcher Eilers published a report on Facebook’s gaming business after the social giant posted its financial earnings for the first quarter of 2014. Facebook’s social gaming business earned $237 million for the quarter. That’s down 2 percent from last quarter and down 11 percent year-over-year.

Facebook Earnings Chart

“During the earnings call, management noted that payment volumes from games specifically was up just +1 percent [year over year] and noted that the shift to mobile is a significant headwind for this business as game usage on desktop is flat-to-down,” noted the report. “Management also said going forward it will be challenging to grow its desktop game platform.”

According to Eilers, the top-grossing Facebook apps were Candy Crush Saga (developer by King), FarmVille 2 (developed by Zynga), DoubleDown Casino (IGT), Texas Hold-Em Poker (also Zynga), and Slotomania (Caesar’s Interactive/Playtika). Zynga and King combined accounted for about 36 percent of all Facebook gaming revenue for the quarter.

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