Location-based gaming app MyTown is said to have gained 450,000 users since its launch on the iPhone app store early December 2009, said Booyah, the gaming studio that developed it. MyTown ranked number seven on the Apple App Store and has registered more than 31 million check-ins from 2.1 million unique real-world locations. Users of MyTown spend an average of more than 30 minutes play per day.

“Our numbers are more than double Foursquare and Gowalla combined,” said Keith Lee, CEO at Booyah, commenting on two other application that mix location-based gaming and social networking.

MyTown is a kind of real-world monopoly that uses GPS features to check-in at real locations (such as shops or restaurants) to unlock rewards. Players can buy and upgrade shops, enjoying virtual ownership of their favorite real-life places. Users can also collect rent when other people check-in to their shops. The more a place is frequented, the more it raises the shops' value and rent. In MyTown, players can also use power-ups to unlock more locations to buy.

MyTown is a free application on the App Store and Booyah probably envisions to turn up advertising revenue from the real-world locations used in the game.

Founders Keith Lee, Brian Morrisroe and Sam Christiansen are former games industry veterans from well known studios such as Blizzard Entertainment and Activision. The company, based in Palo Alto, has raised $4.5 million from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ iFund in May 2009.