FarmVille launched on Facebook in June 2009 and became the most viral game the internet had ever seen. At its peak, it had over 80 million monthly active users. Your aunt, your coworker, your grandma — everyone was harvesting crops and sending you livestock requests.

The game pioneered the free-to-play, pay-to-progress model that would define mobile gaming for the next decade. Zynga made billions from microtransactions — virtual tractors, rare seeds, and farm expansions that players couldn't resist buying.

But FarmVille was built on two fragile foundations: Facebook's platform and Adobe Flash. Facebook changed its algorithm to deprioritize game spam, killing the viral loop that fueled growth. Players got tired of the grind, and Zynga failed to innovate beyond the original formula.

When Adobe announced Flash would be discontinued at the end of 2020, FarmVille's fate was sealed. Zynga shut down the original FarmVille on December 31, 2020. FarmVille 2 survived on mobile, but the original farm — the one that defined a generation of casual gaming — was plowed under forever.