56 million Americans are annoying you on Facebook

Mashable’s latest update is that 56 million people are now involved in some form of social gaming.  The king of these companies is Zynga – responsible for all those stupid FB updates about sad cows and unwatered crops.

The study was commissioned by the NPD Group (full press release can be found here).  Some key stats:

– 53% of players are women (I’m looking at you Farmville and Cafe World)

– 60 million Americans over the age of 6 have played a social game at least once

– $2.2 BILLION in virtual goods have been bought through social gaming