• VentureBeat, Wednesday, February 23, 2011 10:16 AM

Social game developer Digital Chocolate has raised $12 million in its fourth round of funding led by Intel Capital. Digital Chocolate is currently the 12th most popular app developer on Facebook with about 17.6 million users, according to AppData. Its most popular game, Millionaire City, has about 12 million users and is ranked 14 on the list of top Facebook applications.

With those numbers, Digital Chocolate stands behind the giants of the social gaming space, including Zynga, Electronic Arts' Playfish, and Disney's Playdom. Zynga, for one, boasts 272 million users across all its games, according to AppData.

"The funding also comes at a time when social games are seeing ballooning valuations," VentureBeat notes. Zynga, in particular, may be worth as much as $10 billion after reportedly raising $500 million. Also of note, Digital Chocolate recently sued Zynga over rights to the name "Mafia Wars" -- one of Zynga's most popular games on Facebook with about 28 million users.

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