There are 12M monthly paying Facebook gamers in the U.S.

When compared to the 700 million total Facebook users, this seems minuscule. But remember that under 12 million World of Warcraft players pay $15 every month. PayPal says in a new infographic that 12 million monthly Facebook gamers in the U.S. pay for content in their favorite games. And here's something else: Of those 12 million monthly players, 58 percent of them spend between $10 and $50 on games like FarmVille.

But a tiny 9 percent of that 12 million, just over 1 million, spend $50 or more on Facebook games every month. It was previously estimated that anywhere from 1 to 3 percent of all Facebook gamers pay big every month for new goodies in their games. Then according to PayPal, U.S. Facebook gamers make up just about two-fifths of a percent of the globe's "whales," a casino term that's been applied to these big social spenders.

However, this number was sourced from U.S. social gamers alone, and Facebook games are a global industry. So, you can imagine that the percentage of paying players worldwide is even larger. The oft-sputtered and mystical "1 to 3 percent" has been demystified, at least in the U.S. (judging from PayPal's findings). As the number paying Facebook gamers increases, it'll be interesting to see not only how (or if at all) prices change for Farm Cash, but how pricing changes for hardcore games.