European game companies like Germany's Wooga join King in dominating Facebook

When it comes to finding new games for its platform, Facebook is increasingly focused on Europe.

Dan Rose, the vice president of partnerships for Facebook, said in an interview on the main stage this week at the Web Summit in Dublin that three of the top five game developers on its platform are now based in Europe and Israel, part of the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. This is happening as U.S. studios shift to mobile, a market that could hit $20 billion by the end of 2014. And even with European studios filling the gap, gaming revenue is still trending down on the social network.

The top developer is, of course, King with Candy Crush Saga (among others), one of the biggest games in the world. But the group also includes Playtika, which makes social casino games, and Plarium, which makes Sparta: War of Empires.

“Europe is the biggest driver of our games business, which is one of the biggest areas of our platform,” Rose said. “Europe is the number one market for games on Facebook.”

Overall, the top 15 game companies on Facebook include Product Madness of the United Kingdom, Pretty Simple of France, Vizor of Russia, and Wooga of Germany.

Rose also said seven of the 10 highest grossing apps on Android phones also come from developers in the EMEA region. As a result, Rose said Facebook is continuing to expand in Europe and increase support for studios.

“This is a market where the developer ecosystem is really robust and we’re investing significant resources here,” Rose said.

In a separate interview off stage, Julien Codorniou, Facebook’s platform director for EMEA (that refers to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), said the rise of European developers marks a big shift from just three years ago, when the top 10 game developers for Facebook were all based in the U.S.

Facebook felt the shift toward European game companies last year as well. The company said previously that 10 of the top 23 games for 2013 came from developers in Europe or the Middle East.