Social gaming killed soaps? Audience shifts as viewers become gamersWhile the soap audience has been shrinking for decades, driven by more women in the workplace and a 200-channel universe, the genre's decline appears to have accelerated over the past few years with the meteoric rise of social gaming. When Zynga–publisher of massively popular Facebook games such as FarmVille and CityVille–arrived on the scene in 2007, both ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE were averaging a 1.9 rating among women 25-54. By 2011 the two shows were averaging 1.3 and 1.4 ratings respectively in that key viewer group. The drop is even steeper for other demographics. Meanwhile, by April 2009, Zynga was reaching 40 million monthly active players on Facebook, according to comScore. These days, the game has over 47 million players each month while the more recent hit, CityVille, attracts a staggering 88 million active participants.
Experts believe that soap viewers, particularly stay-at-home moms, are increasingly finding the connection inherent to social games far more compelling than the goings on in Pine Valley.