Many entrepreneurs that have approached us are game developers – take a look at the below infographic (“information graphic”) for some very relevant facts and figures. Of note:

• Between 2009 and 2012, revenue from social gaming is expected to go up by 67% – most of this from the sale of virtual goods
• Virtual goods are non-physical objects purchased for use in online communities or online games with no intrinsic value outside of the game or community. Examples include digital gifts and digital clothing for avatars. In 2009, worldwide virtual goods accounted for US $7.3 billion in sales, mostly from East Asia. US virtual goods sales were about US $1.6 billion in 2010.
• Surprisingly, the most successful social games have higher audiences than top TV shows – FarmVille, for example, has a weekly audience of over 33 million users

The potential of the social gaming market is so great because the cost –and time– of developing a new idea is cut down quite significantly. Working on the iOS or Facebook platforms is far quicker than designing a full-fledged PC-game, and when you’re done you don’t have to do any distribution: Apple and Facebook handle everything for you.

For the large resolution version, head on over to GetSatisfaction