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FarmVille, CityVille Blamed For Soap Opera Cancellations
If you're not a soap opera fan, you may not have heard that the long-running ABC soaps All My Children and One Life To Live are coming to an end this fall. Declining ratings are the main problem, of course, but some sources are suggesting that a far more insidious culprit may be culpable: Zynga and its numerous popular Facebook games.
According to an article on AdWeek, the decline in soap opera viewership amongst its core audience coincides shockingly well with the rise in the popularity of FarmVille and CityVille.
AdWeek reports that in 2007, both All My Children and One Life To Live averaged a 1.9 rating with women age 25 to 54. Now both are hovering around a 1.4. Meanwhile, Zynga's games have grown to 47 million monthly users for FarmVille and 88 million for CityVille.
What I don't get is why people couldn't play Facebook games while watching soap operas? All due respect to Zynga, its games aren't exactly the most mentally taxing around.
[via Kotaku]
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