The Top 10 Most Popular Strategy Games on Facebook

One of the coolest thing's about Facebook is that it has so many apps and games built-in that it is almost like an online arcade as much as it is a social network. Despite the fact that there are plenty of critics who love to bash Facebook gamers with the erroneous assumption that social networking and gaming makes you “dumb and lazy,” there are actually some very challenging strategy games to be found on Facebook. So go ahead and dispel the overhyped stereotype, and start increasing your IQ by exploring some of the games on the following list of the top 10 Facebook strategy games. (Note: This list is ranked according to popularity based on the number of active monthly users, according to statistics from GameChitah)

1. Clash of Clans

With more than 10 million daily users, Clash of the Clans has become literally 10 times more popular than every other strategy game on Facebook, with the second-most popular (Social Empires) only having about 1 million daily users. In short, the object of the game is to help build a community as part of a clan in which you continually train troops and attack other clans strategically to earn elixir and gold, which can then be used to strengthen your clan's defenses.

Back in September of last year, Business Insider published a piece explaining the game's massive following, and that was 6 months after a hacker revealed that the makers of Clash of the Clans (Supercell) were bringing in more than $5 million per day in revenue from the game. There's no denying that this can be one highly addictive game, probably due to the sense of achievement players get by being part of a collaborative effort to become the best clan in the game.

With tournaments being held regularly and the game having such strategic depth in regard to training and planning in a social manner, it's really not surprising that it has become so well-adopted on Facebook. If you'd like to see the game in action, check out this compilation of Clash of the Clans trailers:

2. Social Empires

Social Empires ranks second in popularity behind Clash of Clans, but with 1 million active monthly users it is still an astounding 9 million users behind the top spot. That adds up to about 100,000 users per day (as of February 16^th, 2015). The game's creators (a Spain-based game development company called Social Point), refer to the game as an "epic adventure" in it's description, but it's actually an adventure-packed strategy game masquerading as an adventure game, which is not surprising since many adventure games require strategy and vice versa.

The game has a huge amount of cheats and tricks, which are apparently so commonly used that 135,000 players of the game wound up being scammed by a fake cheat, which was noticed and pointed out on BitDefender's HotforSecurity blog. Those players were conned into purchasing a cheat that was supposed to give them extra resources to advance in the game. Fortunately, most players of Social Empires are somewhat accustomed to paying for gameplay, as the game itself has a lot of in-game purchases that are almost necessary to make any great progress.

Despite the monetary cost of the game (and the temporal cost that comes with the amount of time it can cause you to waste), Social Empires is obviously an addictive title that keeps players entertained, occupied, and motivated to continue building their digital empire. Which reminds us, we still haven't detailed the point of the game – to “build armies of warriors and mighty dragons,” and “attack other players' kingdoms,” and “battle it out in epic tournaments,.” And of course the goal of all this is to “conquer the world and be crowned Social Emperor,” according to the game's official page on Social Point's website.

3. Social Wars

Ironically, Social Wars is developed by the same company that created Social Empires (Social Point), and the game also boasts an impressive 1 million active monthly users. The big difference between the two games is that Social Wars is robot/transformer-themed, whereas Social Empires is a medieval style game with dragons, knights, and kingdoms.

Like Social Empires, the gist of the game is succinctly summarized by four key points on its official description page, which explains that the goal of the game is to defend the planet from an alien attack, build an impenetrable city, lead a mighty army of man and machine, and forge alliances with other players.

Unfortunately, Social Point's other two games – Monster Legends and Dragon City – have not yet reached the same level of popularity on Facebook. Still, it is impressive that their development team has managed to put together two of the top three most popular strategy games on Facebook. Altogether the company's four games have a combined 15 million monthly active users. To learn more about Social Wars, check out the game's official trailer below:

4. Throne Rush

Throne Rush is a military strategy game created by a team of developers known as Nexters, based in Moscow, Russia. Being that their official website is written in Russian, you'd be better off getting a detailed description of the game from Facebook's developer's docs.

While the game only has about 1 million monthly active users on Facebook, it is also available on Android and iOS. Across all of those platforms combined, Throne Rush has a total of 9 million monthly active users. In fact, the game attracted an additional 4.5 million monthly active users in the first month after releasing the Android and iOS versions. Furthermore, just three months after the cross-platform launch, the game's developers were already bringing in a total revenue of $100,000 per day.

Throne Rush excels graphically, incorporating a great deal of 3D imagery in the sophisticated gaming environment. Like many other strategy games this one is based in medieval times. For some reason many makers of strategy games like to set their games in past or future. 

A large part of the game's popularity can be attributed to it's depth, with more than 20 different types of buildings that can be used to construct a kingdom, 10 kinds of troops, and a variety of missions and battles. To see what the game looks like in action, check out the gameplay trailer for the Android version of Throne Rush:

5. Galaxy Life

Galaxy Life is a futuristic strategy game that revolves around “cute” aliens, whom you are tasked with the challenge of keeping happy, comfortable, and safe from attacks. You're basically the guardian of this village of cute little aliens that look like they came out of an animated Pixar movie. Players are able to use a variety of resources to improve and protect the lives of their alien companions, including decorations, walls, buildings, traps, and even turrets.

As with any good strategy game there is also an offensive end, in which you're able to train and position your alien troops to advance your colony of extraterrestrial cuteness onto the colonies of other players. The more alien workers you have, the more you can build. Of course these traits are found in most popular strategy games, with the main differences usually being theme-specific, such as graphics, characters, environments and storylines.

The game's creator is a video game development company called Digital Chocolate, which has managed to receive a number of awards. The company's success is not surprising, considering the fact it was founded by Trip Hawkins, the founder of Electronic Arts. However, the company sold the intellectual property rights of Galaxy Life to Ubisoft in September of 2013. If you're still struggling to understand how aliens could be considered cute in a strategy game, check out the trailer for Galaxy Life:

6. War Commander

War Commander is described as a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) game that is based in a post-apocalyptic setting and is centered around war strategy. The object of the game is to battle other players for Earth's remaining resources, which involves building and training an army of crazy dysfunctional bandits that look like they came straight out of the movie Doomsday (2008).

War Commander takes the form of the typical strategy game, with more than 20 types of planes, tanks, and troops that can be deployed and positioned to defend your post-apocalyptic fort and seize the resources of other players.

While all of this may sound like run-of-the-mill strategy game stuff, the strength of the game is the speed at which everything happens and how much complexity and action there can be in one battle sequence. There are also an absurd number of components and resources that can be used to defend your own fort and attack others'. Let's just say that you'd have to become a fanatic to make it anywhere near the top of the leaderboard, but that's usually the case with any strategy game that has a lot of depth to it.

Players compete against each other to compile the Earth's last dwindling resources in an effort to make it to the top of the leaderboard. The game's developers (KixEye) have done a great job of creating an awesome trailer and official page for War Commander. Although we will say that the graphics in the trailer don't accurately represent the Facebook game, but we'll let you be the judge of that:

7. Stormfall: Age of War

Stormfall: Age of War is another strategy game that has managed to amass more than 500 million monthly active users. It is also yet another entry in the genre that has put the storyline and characters in a medieval setting, more specifically, “in the lands of Darkshine.” However, the core objectives of the game are not as straightforward as other strategy games.

The player's primary focus is to to build up your character's skillset in “sorcery and siegecraft,” and to “master a trade and intrigue,” and to seek out weapons and resources, or “ancient lore and relics to wield.” Then there is the recruiting phase, in which you recruit barbarians, dragons, and all sort of other strange medieval goons. You can also forge alliances with other players to strengthen your kingdom and plunder the treasures of other castles.

Another important element of the game is the management of key resources such as iron, gold, and food. You can increase your production of resources by building more mines, townhouses, farms, and dungeons. Overall, when you consider all of the bases that have to be covered to facilitate success, there really is a ton of strategy involved, at least if you plan to win any battles. To see the game in action, check out the first look at Stormfall: Age of War's gameplay below:

8. Plants vs. Zombies Adventures

Plants vs. Zombies was originally released on the Windows and OS X operating systems back in 2009. The game was later released on Facebook as Plants vs. Zombies Adventures, and in 2013 won the award for Best Mobile Game in the Spike VGX. The game's popularity stems partially from its unique theme. If you run down this top ten list you'll see common themes amongst most of the games – medieval times, futuristic robots, aliens, and war.

This game brings in a Zombie apocalypse and then adds a twist by letting you protect your suburban estate with a variety of plant-based defensive weapons, such as Potato Mines, Cherry Bombs, Wall-Nuts, Snow Peas, Fume Shrooms, and Peashooters. In short, the plants are your friends, and the zombies are your enemies. It is up to you to properly position and produce your plant resources to keep the zombie invaders from overrunning your homestead and gnawing on your extremities.

The creators of the game are PopCap, the same game development company that created Bejeweled, Solitaire Blitz, Peggle, and Book Worm. To see Plants vs. Zombies in action, check out the official trailer below:

9. Ninja Kingdom

Here we have another uniquely themed strategy game in Ninja Kingdom, deviating from the conventional medieval/futuristic theme to delve into the realm of Ninjas, jades, sushi, villages, and treasures.

The objective of the game is to build your village, prepare your troops, and utilize stealth units and weapons like controllable beasts. You can even catch on fire while in battle or share troops with other players to form alliances. The game is packed with ways to add action to each battle, and the animated characters are very well-designed and intriguing to say the least.

The ultimate goal of the game is a lot like Mario Brothers – you have to take back the Princess and her family treasure. To do so you'll need to plunder through neighboring villages by training and deploying troops strategically.

The company that created the game is Zynga, the same developer that brought you the uber-famous Farmville and ZyngaPoker. To see Ninja Kingdom in action, check out the trailer below:

10. Knights: Clash of Heroes

Knights: Clash of Heroes embodies the classic battle of good vs. evil, letting players join the Army of light to fight against the Dark Horde. The game gets about 150,000 daily users and is available on 5 major social networks – Facebook, VK, Odnoklassniki, Moj Mir, and Fotostrana (the latter of which are Russian).

The majority of the games' entertainment comes from a combination of in-depth adventures and action-packed battles. The developer of the game is Playkot, the same company that created the games Warzone, SuperCity, Farkle Live, Pioneers, and Club Life. To see the game in action, check out this gameplay video: