Games are one of most lucrative segments of social networks at the moment (see our Shopkick post – the app gives away Facebook credits for games as part of its kickbucks loyalty program) – last year US$2.2 billion was spent on virtual trinkets in third-party games. This is great for social networks, putting less pressure on sourcing hard-to-come-by advertising dollars. Up to one in ten social gamers pays for their past-time and even more intend to do so in the future and the predicted figure for social games’ net worth in 2013 is US$6 billion.

Interestingly, social gamers are on average older (43 years old) and female (53 per cent) – a far cry from the image of the pizza-eating teenaged GTA enthusiast. Video console games continue to be a largely masculine preserve, but it seems the more social the format, the more women will play. Looking at the range of games offered on social sites, women are certainly being courted with a huge range of fluffy, friendly choices. A look at the top ten Facebook games last month sees warm fuzzy FarmVille, Treasure Isle, Café World and PetVille alongside more masculine offerings like Texas HoldEm Poker and Mafia Wars. Facebook is the biggest social gaming hub, with a whopping 83 per cent of users reporting they had played a game on the network.

NPD Group research via Mashable & Inside Social Games.