Draw Something Users Declining

After bursting onto the scene in March the wildly popular mobile game Draw Something is finally starting to drop back down to reality. Though still posting extremely high active user counts, OMGPOP's breakout hit has seen that number decrease by about 4 Million between April 2nd and May 2nd.

Some might point to the recent acquisition of OMGPOP — an acquisition that saw only one holdout — as the source for this recent downtick, based solely on who the developer was acquired by. Despite being the "fastest selling" mobile game of all time, Draw Something isn't showing the type of staying power that Zynga might have hoped it would.

Farmville creator Zynga has had a longstanding reputation of monetizing nearly ever segment of their games to the point that it becomes more of a second job than a gaming experience. When Zynga purchased OMGPOP they clearly had their eyes set on maximizing the success Draw Something, and fans feared the worse.

But that idea still seems a bit far-fetched, especially when you consider the type of people who are enjoying Draw Something on their iPhone or Android device. Instead the real problem might rest with the Draw Something concept itself, which holds such a fleeting appeal.

When Draw Something first hit, and toppled the likes of Angry Birds and Cut the Rope from the number one spot on the App Store, any and everybody started up a bunch of games, and kept up with them pretty regularly. Unfortunately, as more and more of their Facebook friends joined the ranks of the Draw Something faithful, the willingness to keep up with each individual game started to decline, and eventually people started giving up all together.

Only time will tell what Zynga is able to do with Draw Something — whether they'll be able to leverage the property in a way that sees players return after nearly a month away — but something has to be done to keep things fresh and exciting. Sure, new words can provide a short-lived appeal, but it's making the app a daily routine that will set it apart.

Have you kept up with every one of your Draw Something games after first downloading the game? What could OMGPOP do to prolong the appeal of the mobile game?

Source: BBC News