Playfish, makers of some of the most popular casual games on social networking sites, has raised $17 million in funding from Accel Partners and Index Ventures. The company has its biggest presence on Facebook, where it has four of the top ten applications. Some of Playfish’s apps – which include Who Has the Biggest Brain and Pet Society – are now available on MySpace as well.
Since we last spoke with the company in July, usage of its games has continued to increase, despite the Facebook redesign which many have classified as the death of applications. Overall, Playfish now claims 22 million registered users (10M active) who are driving 2 billion minutes of engagement per month – more than double the numbers we were hearing from the company over the summer.
Asked about how his company has been able to weather the redesign at Facebook, CEO Kristian Segerstrale told me that he thinks some of the changes have actually helped Playfish’s applications - for example, the Windows-like taskbar, which provides easier access to frequently played apps.
Playfish is monetizing their games both through in-game advertising – in-part through Google’s AdSense for Games – and also their own transactional platform, through which they sell premium features, virtual goods, and memberships for some of their apps.
