Social Gaming Conquers US

Americans love playing video games on social networks—one in five over the age of 6, or 56 million people, have played the likes of Farmville, Mafia Wars, or countless others at least once, says a new study. Like Nintendo's Wii, social game developers are cashing in on the casual gamer audience, and the demographics are striking: 53% are women, the average age hovers around 40, and 35% have no previous gaming experience, Mashable reports.

Gaming is a boon to social networks because though the games are generally free, users are willing to shell out for extras. Last year, users bought $2.2 billion of such "virtual goods" across all social networks, and other statistics place the average expenditure per user at a sizable $74 every four months.
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