App Data reports say that Zynga’s newest title, CityVille, pulled ahead of FarmVille in both daily and monthly active users during the holiday season. Zynga launched CityVille on Facebook just over a month ago, and according to the application page there are now over84, 222,766 users actively playing the game. The game attracted nearly 2 million new players one day alone and almost 22 million over the past 7 days.

Although the games are similar in nature, the difference lies in the fact that CityVille is centered on a central theme background. Unlike FarmVille, users are able to build their own cities full of residents, businesses, and civic structures. You can also be a mayor of your own city and a governor by achieving certain goals.

According to the Inside Social Games blog, the burgeoning popularity of Facebook in the U.S. and overseas could help the game eventually top 125 million monthly players.

Zynga has 281.9 million monthly active users, and has the seven most-played games on Facebook. The next-closest rival on Facebook is Takeoff Monkey, with just 57 million active users a month.

However, CityVille hasn’t had the daily active user retention that FarmVille managed to maintain at the height of its popularity. At the end of its release month, CityVille was pulling in around 20 percent of its monthly user base every day, slightly less than the 30 percent DAU retention FarmVille regularly boasts.

Via tothecenter