New stats from a research group eMarketer showed that the social gaming market will likely exceed $1 billion this year generally due to a rising number of users and a projected increase in advertising. It is a 28% growth over the previous year when the market accounted for $856 million.

eMarketer says that about 62 million US users which is 27% of the total Internet subscribers are forecast to play at least one of the social games a month in 2011, up from 53 million last year.

Revenue from virtual goods will continue to bring in the biggest share of dollars this year and next. And marketers are expected to spend $192 million to advertise on social networking games, up 60% from last year.

"Forecasts of audience and revenue growth present an opportunity for marketers to promote their brands through social games," said Paul Verna, author of the upcoming report "Social Gaming: Marketers Make Their Moves."