Happy Farm in the context of Story of Seasons (series)

A social network game (sometimes simply referred to as a social media game, social gaming, or online social game) is a type of online game that is played through social networks or social media. They typically feature gamification systems with multiplayer gameplay mechanics. Social network games were originally implemented as browser games. As mobile gaming took off, the games moved to mobile as well. While they share many aspects of traditional video games, social network games often employ additional ones that make them distinct. Traditionally they are oriented to be social games and casual games.

The first cross-platform "Facebook-to-Mobile" social network game was developed in 2011 by a Finnish company Star Arcade. Social network games are amongst the most popular games played in the world, with several products with tens of millions of players. (Lil) Green Patch, Happy Farm, and Mob Wars were some of the first successful games of this genre. FarmVille, Mafia Wars, Kantai Collection, and The Sims Social are more recent examples of popular social network game.

FarmVille is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga beginning in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm and Farm Town. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plowing land, planting, growing, and harvesting crops, harvesting trees and raising livestock. The sequels FarmVille 2 and FarmVille 3 were released in 2012 and 2021.

The game was available as an Adobe Flash application via the social networking website Facebook and Microsoft's MSN Games. It was briefly available as a mobile app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad in 2010. The game is free to play, but to progress quickly, players are encouraged to spend Farm Cash (in FarmVille) or Farm Bucks (in FarmVille 2), which are purchasable with real-world currency. FarmVille was thus one of the first major freemium games.