Mobile Gaming Industry in Turkey

In 2010, health-tech and SaaS industries were preferred when establishing new companies, since the industry was booming at the time. These two industries continued their rise for several years; however, mobile gaming start-ups began to increase in numbers in 2012. In 2016, there were 27 new start-ups. By the end of 2017, this number had gone up to 36. In 2018 and 2019, there were 47 and 71 new gaming start-ups, respectively. Gaming companies were the most established companies in 2019 and 2020. Now, the number of gaming companies stands at 239. This growth is due to an increase in realisation of its industrial potential, number of governmental incentives, and investor attention.

In the early 2010s, investors were mainly local venture capitals or angel investors. However, starting in 2017, gaming industry giant Zynga turned its attention to the Turkish mobile gaming market with the acquisition of Peak Games’ mobile card studio for USD 100 million. This acquisition was an important milestone and it encouraged both investors and the entrepreneurs as they realised there was potential in the market. A year after this acquisition, Zynga acquired İstanbul-based Gram Games for USD 250 million. In 2019, Masomo, the creator of the popular game series Head Bal,l was acquired by Miniclip, a subsidiary company of the Chinese gaming giant Tencent Holdings. In 2020, when the mobile gaming industry was booming because of the lockdowns implemented in almost every country as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zynga struck again, not once but twice. In June 2020, Zynga acquired 100% of Peak Games for USD 1.8 billion, making Peak Games the first unicorn in Turkey. Then, in August 2020, Zynga acquired 80% of İstanbul-based Rollic Games, the creators of countless top-tier, hyper-casual mobile games, for USD 180 million. Lastly, İstanbul-based Dream Games received USD 50 million investment from Series A funding led by Index Ventures, an important venture capital investor known for their investments in companies like Roblox and Deliveroo. This investment round became the largest Series A round raised by a Turkish company. With just a handful of start-ups being involved in these investments, around USD 2.4 billion was funnelled into Turkey.

At present, there is news going around the country every week about new mobile gaming studios raising funds from local and foreign investors, such as the newly formed venture capital Two Zero Ventures. New programming and design courses are being announced almost every day by the government and private companies to develop programmers and developers for the future. The Turkish mobile gaming industry has been experiencing rapid growth. With new emboldened start-ups, developers, and entrepreneurs, this industry will keep on growing. It may be the perfect time to invest in the Turkish mobile gaming industry.

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Published: GGI Insider, No. 113, May 2021 l Photo: Drobot Dean - stock.adobe.com