Despite becoming a household name in the social gaming world, "FarmVille" has recently lost some momentum. The game hit a slump last month as it dropped from 82 million players in March to 78 million at the end of April.
Inside Social Games reported the numbers, and suggests the loss is due to the removal of third party notifications on Facebook, a tool that stopped players receiving a constant flow of information about the farmyard shenanigans. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has suggested this drop in numbers is only for the "short term", as "FarmVille" wasn't the only game from the company to lose some followers.
The list of games effected includes other Zynga titles "Cafe World" and "Mafia Wars", as well as games from Crowdstar and Playfish. It's expected that the drop may continue over the next month, as gift requests are eliminated from Facebook and can only take place in the game itself. As newer games from Zynga and Playfish rocketed into the top 20 played on Facebook last week, the dwindling numbers could also be a sign of players looking for something new to get involved with.