Fastest growing Facebook games over the past week: 'My City Life'; 'Bubble Island', multilingual games

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The three-week-old Facebook game My City Life has been gobbling up new users like there's no tomorrow, quickly breaking through the 2 million mark and becoming the number one fastest growing Facebook game of the past week.

Naturally, there is a Facebook spin on the game: the involvement of friends, which acts as a means for the games developers to gain a larger user base, while giving players a leg up as they plan their streets and houses with greater and greater care.

Okey (#16) and the 6 Waves Gaming Network (#18) are this week's reminders that a game doesn't have to be in the English language to be successful. Okey is a Turkish-language version of a Turkish coffeehouse game, usually for four players, using a set of tiles numbered from 1 to 13.

The 6 Waves Gaming Network is not strictly a game in itself but a portal to 6 Waves' portfolio. The Hong Kong company has been translating its games in Chinese and European languages for some time now, but crucially to the exclusion of English.

Despite that, recent figures indicate that 6 Waves is now "the fourth largest Facebook application developer," according to Justin Smith of Facebook analysts The Inside Network.

World at War (#13) has burst onto the scene with a new take on the traditional board game Risk, reworked for a generation raised on Call of Duty video games and the instant gratification of online social networking. The developer put it through several pre-release versions to test out how it would work before unleashing it on an eager public, and since late January has accumulated nearly 1 million regular players.

Gangster City (#9) has a long way to go until it catches Mafia Wars (#10) in terms of overall users, but has been plotting a steady course. Each week, the number of regular players has been growing by one-fifth, thanks in part to Gangster City's recognizable Grand Theft Auto-style presentation which has been doing no harm to its chances.

Bubble Island (#17) is a Facebook-friendly remake of Taito's arcade classic Puzzle Bobble / Bust-a-Move. In both, a screen is filled with bubbles which must be removed by the player, who must fire matching bubbles from the bottom of the screen in order to do so.

The original has seen a new lease of life on mobile phones, the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, on Xbox's Live Arcade, and most recently on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

However, Bubble Island's developers have taken advantage of Taito's hesitancy to embrace the Facebook platform and are here rewarded with a wicked percentage growth rate as friends tell friends and interest spreads.

Fastest growing Facebook games on Friday February 19 at 6:00 PM GMT
01. My City Life (2,398,235 = +915,382 / 38.2%)
02. MindJolt Games (17,710,496 = +826,577 / 4.7%)
03. FarmVille (79,331,014 = +819,613 / 1.0%)
04. Hero World (7,072,586 = +636,191 / 9.0%)
05. Zoo World (19,499,210 = +621,570 / 3.2%)
06. Texas HoldEm Poker (26,200,198 = +533,938 / 2.0%)
07. SuperPoke! Pets (1,972,002 = +525,983 / 26.7%)
08. Ninja Saga (2,947,785 = +445,540 / 15.1%)
09. Gangster City (1,994,979 = +396,661 / 19.9%)
10. Mafia Wars (25,300,405 = +363,449 / 1.4%)
11. Restaurant City (14,664,510 = +314,355 / 2.1%)
12. UNO (3,360,852 = +282,268 / 8.4%)
13. World at War (951,116 = +262,848 / 27.6%)
14. (Lil) Farm Life (5,665,490 = +240,940 / 4.3%)
15. Happy Island (11,693,718 = +232,096 / 2.0%)
16. Okey (2,542,197 = +226,089 / 8.9%)
17. Bubble Island (263,402 = +188,840 / 71.7%)
18. 6 waves Gaming Network (903,498 = +180,505 / 20.0%)
19. PetVille (18,682,529 = +180,158 / 1.0%)
20. Tiki Resort (399,999 = +166,431 / 41.6%)

Numbers in brackets relate to total monthly users, the increase in monthly users, and the weekly percentage growth.
Source: appdata.com