Facebook touts App Center traffic to iTunes, Google Play

Facebook is releasing new stats on the games ecosystem and App Center amid the Game Developers Conference Europe this week.

The social network reports that there are more than 235 million people playing games on Facebook.com each month -- a modest increase (at least by Facebook standards) from 205 million last year. To put that into perspective, Facebook has more than 900 million members and counting.

Facebook routinely boasts that the App Center is a major traffic driver to apps and games -- not just on Facebook but for its Silicon Valley neighbors as well. Facebook asserts that more than 150 million people used the App Center in the past month, driving 2.4 times more installs than the old apps and games dashboard.

Users who installed an app from the App Center were found to be 35 percent more likely than the average user to return to the app the following day, and 17 percent were more likely to return within a week.

Furthermore, in July alone, Facebook touts that it drove consumers to the iTunes App Store and Google Play more than 170 million times.

Facebook is announcing these figures during GDC Europe because reps say that game developers have a huge opportunity to build locally and grow globally. That would certainly seem like the case as more than 80 percent of Facebook users are from outside of the United Sates.

Currently, Facebook reports that five of the top 10 game developers on the world's largest social network are based in Europe -- compared to one out of 10 last year. Some of familiar brands Wooga, Peak Games, and Rovio.

For reference, Facebook launched the App Center earlier this summer as the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company realigns its mobile strategy.

With more than 600 apps in the queue from Facebook friends such as Zynga, Pinterest and Spotify, the App Center is the natural next step for the Open Graph platform.