"We have reached 45 million active players per month," said Nikita Bokarev from Yandex Games about the results of 2024
App2Top continues to summarize the results of 2024 with gaming (or gaming sector-related) teams and experts. This time the editorial team spoke with Nikita Bokarev, Head of Business Development for Yandex Games.
How did the year 2024 turn out for the company?
Overall, the year was very successful: we reached 45 million active players per month, which is almost half more than the previous peak of 33 million players in 2023. As of today, Yandex Games remains one of the largest international web gaming platforms and consistently ranks in the top 3 worldwide by audience size and growth.
What achievements would you like to highlight?
Last year, many well-known studios specializing in mobile games joined Yandex Games; they see the web as an additional source of revenue and traffic. At the same time, midcore and hybrid casual games with in-game monetization are gaining popularity. The number of such games with in-game purchases has overall increased on the platform, with around 2,000 now available.
Mobile hits are also coming, such as the merge-arena Ludus from Top App Games studio and State of Survival from the Chinese company FunPlus. These releases demonstrate that even complex and resource-intensive mobile games can be ported to the web today.
Ludus
Classic Flash hits are also performing well on Yandex Games. The platformer Red Ball from Yohoho Games studio is one of our most popular games.
What changes occurred on the platform over the past year?
The main changes focused on the catalog. In 2024, more than 29,000 games were published, including projects from renowned studios. At the same time, both players and the platform raised their content requirements. New standards were introduced, and non-compliance led to the removal of over 30,000 games from the catalog. To compare, in 2023, about 17,000 games were published and 9,000 were removed. Today, Yandex Games has approximately 28,000 games, with a shift in focus from quantity to quality.
In addition, our platform is actively expanding in international markets: 40% of players come to Yandex Games from other countries. To consider differences in audience preferences between the CIS and other regions, we created a separate international game rating. This allowed us to adapt the catalog to cultural nuances and significantly enhance the user experience.
Has the work format with developers changed?
An active indie developer community has formed around the platform: almost 9,000 participants in Telegram! They communicate and help each other. We support developers by providing more professional tools, such as advanced analytics for products, monetization, and technical aspects.
Last year, the demand for A/B testing significantly increased, which developers actively used to compare promotional materials and game parameters. To date, none of our competitors in the web space offer similar opportunities.
Furthermore, we invite experienced specialists to analyze games and conduct interviews with industry professionals. These formats were launched in 2024 on our YouTube channel. We believe that supporting young developers is an essential contribution to industry development.
The "Yandex Games for Developers" Channel on YouTube
How has the web games market changed over the year?
The ability to start playing in just a couple of clicks without installation makes web games increasingly accessible and popular. The trend towards cross-platform play has strengthened: developers see new and profitable opportunities for themselves in the web. There is also significant growth in interest in web games in the professional community: at conferences, round tables, and presentations where game developers share their experiences are increasingly held.
China Digital Entertainment Congress (CDEC), China Joy 2024
One could say that web games are experiencing a renaissance, attracting well-deserved attention from major market players. Along with giants like WeChat and YouTube, Discord has taken a step towards the web by introducing Activities. In turn, Unity sees WebGPU as a promising direction for development, and thus Unity 6 will focus on the web. Given that about half the games on our platform are developed with Unity, this is excellent news for all developers.
The market is evolving and growing, and we are delighted to recognize our contribution to this.
What trends in your niche do you expect in 2025?
It's traditionally thought that the web is limited to hyper-casual games with ad monetization. However, the past year has shown that the situation is changing. The opportunity to release projects with in-game monetization on Yandex Games has been around for a while, but last year we saw an increase in such casual and midcore projects. Moreover, more games that previously only earned revenue from ads have started implementing various monetization mechanics and significantly increased their revenues. These projects demonstrate high player engagement, confirming that the web audience is open to more complex games and is willing to pay for bonuses, clan support, or advantages over other players.
Last year, other web platforms also noticed this trend and added support for in-game monetization. We are confident that 2025 will see a leap and a shift toward a hybrid model of game monetization on the web.
What are your plans for 2025?
This year we plan to maintain our growth pace. We will enhance the platform as a product, improve content quality, and refine the recommendation system to offer players the best personalized selections.
For developers, we will provide even more features for analytics, monetization, and player acquisition. Additionally, we will continue supporting our developer community by releasing helpful materials, conducting interviews with fascinating speakers, and exchanging experiences—everything will be available on our Telegram channel for developers. Join us!