FarmVille Holiday Lights expansion helps raise $1M for charity

FarmVille's recently released, charity-based expansion, Holiday Lights, raised more than $1 million for hunger-relief charity Feeding America, according to a blog post from Zynga.

Holiday Lights is a new farm that was released in November. In addition to special holiday items, the expansion also allowed players to make contributions to the charity via in-game items.

"We originally set what we believed was a lofty goal: raise $500,000 one dollar at a time," the post reads. "But, days after releasing the farm to players we noticed something that blew us away. Within a week, we were on track to reach the $500k goal. To keep the giving going, we decided to raise the goal to $1 million and within just 20 days, FarmVille players collectively generated $1 million to help fight hunger — which is enough to deliver 9 million meals to those in need this holiday season."

According to Zynga, FarmVille has helped raise more than $7 million to date for different charities. You can view more details in the infographic below.

Zynga's next charity efforts will center around a second holiday campaign that allows players to contribute to Heifer International — an organization working to end poverty and hunger.