Electronic Arts Now #2 in Social Gaming

The Madden, FIFA and Battlefield maker is beginning to threaten Zynga's dominance. And it's all thanks to PopCap Games, which Electronic Arts ERTS acquired for $750 million. The company had been gaining steam with social versions of its console and PC staples. With PopCap now officially part of the EA family, the company has become the number-two player in social games. According to AllThingsD, EA also received a major boost from Sims Social, which has become the fastest-growing game on Facebook. Based on the listings from AppData (a company that monitors the success of social game developers/publishers), EA has a total of 72.3 million users. That's less than 1/3 of the 275.4 million users that Zynga currently possesses, but an impressive number when you consider how new EA is to the social games market. Equally impressive is how many more users EA has than its nearest competitors on Facebook. Both Mensing and Microsoft MSFT – the third- and fourth-largest companies on the list – have roughly 50 million users. Wooga, the number-five player, has just 38 million users. Now that EA is in control of mainstream hits like Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies, the company is poised to continue growing. Follow me @LouisBedigian