• eMarketer, Wednesday, January 12, 2011 2:42 PM

Before the end of the year, domestic social gaming will be a $1 billion business, according to a new report from eMarketer. This year, 62 million US Internet users -- or 27% of the online audience -- will play at least one game on a social network monthly this year, which up from 53 million in 2010.

"While advertising and lead-generation offers will fuel major chunks of revenue for social gaming companies, sales of virtual goods will continue to be responsible for over 50 percent of revenue," notes Vator News, citing the eMarketer report. "Even though fewer than 6% of US social gamers spend money on virtual items, these avid players will produce revenues of $653 million in the US alone this year," said Paul Verna, author of the eMarketer report "Social Gaming: Marketers Make Their Moves." Worldwide, the virtual goods market has reportedly skyrocketed 245% to $7.3 billion this year from $2.1 billion in 2007. In November, Zynga's FarmVille had about 54 million monthly active users -- nearly double the game's 30 million users from September 2009.

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