Screenshot of a 2009 screencast video posted on Hatchlings Facebook page, “Hatchlings: An Introduction for New Users.” To play the video, click image above or visit facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1119020054054.
In preparation for his article on Hatchling‘s founder Brad Dwyer, “With Facebook app, Brad Dwyer hatches career as ISU undergrad,” Geoff received a list of stats from Dwyer that could be used to show the Facebook app‘s popularity, which is described as “a year-round egg hunt and virtual pet game.” The only stat that fit in the article, however, was its user count of 3.4 million users. Here are the others, which are quite impressive:
- Over 90,000 users have either made a direct payment or completed an offer
- Over 2 billion eggs have been found to date
- Over 600 different types of eggs have been released
- On our best day Hatchlings had over 20,000,000 pageviews
- Hatchlings serves up well over 100 pages each second
- It takes 7 servers to keep Hatchlings going
If you’re not a Hatchlings user and are curious about its popularity and rapid growth, make sure to check out the introduction video Dwyer posted on the Hatchlings Facebook page in 2009 (above). Titled “Hatchlings: An Introduction for New Users,” the 4:32 video does an excellent job of giving an overview of how the game is played and who plays the game. Regarding the latter, the narrator of the video says this:
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There are three main types of Hatchlings players. The first type is in it for the competition. They’ll compete globally, locally and with their friends to see who can collect the most eggs. The second type of player tries to collect all the different types of special eggs that are in the game. There are hundreds of different types of eggs and at least one new egg is released every week to keep you on your toes. The final type of player is just a casual player, collecting a few eggs, here and there, and hatching them to see what pets they turn in to. No matter which of these categories you fall in to, or if you’re in another category all together, you’re welcome in Hatchlings.
Watch the full video at facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1119020054054.
