Social media games have become big business

— -- Over the course of several hours a day, retiree Steve Ireland, of Fort Monmouth, N.J., becomes a mafia don.

Ireland is deep in the world of Mafia Wars, a social game played on Facebook. There are the thrills of completing tasks and online battle. "It seems weird because my wife says all the time, 'All you are doing is just clicking.' "

These days, lots of people are clicking — and playing — on Facebook for free. In some cases, they are even spending real money, buying virtual items and boosts to progress faster.

According to a study last fall by Information Solutions Group, 42% of Internet users in the U.S. had played a social media game in the previous three months, up from 28% a year earlier. Social media game publisher Zynga Inc. said daily users grew to 54 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 13% from the same period in 2010.

"They are clearly the hottest or fastest growing sector of the video game market," said Garth Chouteau, a spokesman for Popcap, a software company and publisher of Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma Blitz. "It is a phenomenon of sorts. You have hundreds of millions of people playing these social games on a regular basis. There was no playing social games four or five years ago."

Friends are inviting friends to games with names such as Farmville, The Sims Social and Gardens of Time. They run on your Web browser and some are linked to applications on smartphones and tablet computers such as the iPad.

Why are they so successful?

People of all ages can play, said Scott Steinberg, chief executive of TechSavvy Global, a consulting and market analysis firm. Most are free and don't take a lot of time, he said.

"Whether you're sitting around the house and you have 10 minutes to kill or you're at work and you're looking to spend some time on a coffee break, they are sitting there, ready and waiting to play, for free, on Facebook," Steinberg said.

If you want, you can play with family or friends. Hooking up with others online can help accomplish tasks, enriching the experience, Steinberg said.

For the companies, it's not all fun and games. They ultimately hope that players will spend real money on virtual cash so they can buy in-game items or advance through the game faster.

According to the Information Solutions Group study, the percentage of social gamers who purchased virtual currency with real cash rose to 26% from 14% in January 2010. It equates to a 86% increase and 31 million people, the study said.

Jackson, N.J., resident Eileen De Peri estimates she spends about $40 a month to buy "Farmville cash," buying items such as fuel so she can harvest her crops faster. "For a stupid game, to me that's a lot," said De Peri, who recently had 18 games on "Words with Friends," a Scrabble-like game, going at once.

How big a business is it? In its recent filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission to go public, Facebook said the worldwide revenue generated from the sale of virtual goods increased from $2 billion in 2007 to $7 billion in 2010, and is forecast to increase to $15 billion by 2014.

Zynga, the publisher of Farmville, Cityville and others, makes up 12% of the social media site's $3.7 billion in 2011 revenue, Facebook said.

Last week, Zynga said revenue amounted to $1.1 billion in 2011, nearly double 2010's $597.4 million in revenue.

"There are just so many people playing that the numbers actually not only work out positively for publishers, but in many cases can actually meet or exceed what they would have gotten had they chosen to sell the title as a full-priced retail project," Steinberg said.