'FarmVille' Is Shutting Down On Facebook After 11 Years

“FarmVille,” one of the first hits in social gaming, is shutting down on Facebook at the end of the year, game developer Zynga announced.

As Adobe will stop distributing and supporting the Flash Player that “FarmVille” uses for its web browser versions on Dec. 31, Facebook will also stop supporting Flash games, a move that the social media giant had announced in July. This also spelled the end of “FarmVille.”

“We’re aware that many of you have been with us since the very beginning, helping to build an incredible global community of players over the years who’ve enjoyed this game just as much as we have,” Zynga said in a blog post. “For that, we say thank you.”

In-app purchases for the Facebook version of “FarmVille” will be available until the payment system is shut down on Nov. 17. Refunds will no longer be processed after this deadline. After the game ceases to be playable on Jan. 1, 2021, anyone with credits left in the game will be left hanging.

Zynga did not respond to Polygon’s request for final numbers on its Facebook player base, but in 2013, the company released an infographic showing that “FarmVille 2” had a 40 million monthly active player count.

Zynga launched “Farmville” in June 2009, and a month later, it had become the first game on Facebook to reach 10 million daily active users. AdWeek reported, citing AppData, that “Farmville” had nearly 73 million monthly active users, which was more than 20% of Facebook’s 350 million users at the time, by the end of 2009.

In May 2010, Facebook and Zynga agreed on a five-year relationship that would expand the use of Facebook credits in Zynga’s games.

Zynga had an initial public offering worth $7 billion in December 2011, signaling the zenith of social games. Several big game publishers developed Facebook adaptations of some of their most recognizable titles, particularly in the case of Electronic Arts.

After its first three months on the NASDAQ, however, Zynga stock plunged, although its latest share prices is actually more than half of its all-time high.

In 2012, the sequel game “FarmVille 2” was released, and it remains available on mobile devices. Both the original and sequel somehow hit the mainstream and were often linked to stories about parents who had become video game addicts.

With Facebook distancing itself from the old social gaming model and looking more toward technology like holographic TV and hologram apps, the writing had been on the wall for some time now.

After over a decade of receiving developer support and continued patronage from its core audience, it’s been a pretty remarkable run for “FarmVille.” By the end of this year, however, its time will finally come to an end.

But Zynga plans to give loyal fans of “FarmVille” a few more reasons to enjoy the game before it finally shuts down, saying in its blog post, “We are also working on fun in-game activities to be announced soon that are designed to make your remaining time with ‘FarmVille’ even more enjoyable.”