"We've reached the milestone of 45 million active players per month," said Nikita Bokarev from Yandex Games on the results of 2024
App2Top continues to summarize the outcomes of 2024 with gaming (or game industry-related) teams and experts. This time, the editorial team spoke with Nikita Bokarev, the Head of Business Development at "Yandex Games".
How was 2024 for the company?
Overall, the year was very successful: we reached 45 million active players per month, which is nearly half more than the peak of 33 million players in 2023. Today, "Yandex Games" remains one of the largest international web gaming platforms and consistently ranks in the top 3 globally in terms of size and audience 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 income and traffic. At the same time, mid-core and hybrid casual games with in-game monetization are gaining popularity. The number of such games with in-game purchases has grown on the platform, now reaching around 2,000.
We also see top mobile hits joining, such as the merge-arena Ludus from Top App Games and State of Survival from the Chinese company FunPlus. These releases demonstrate that even today, complex and resource-intensive mobile games can be ported to the web.
Ludus
Classic Flash hits also perform well on "Yandex Games." The platformer Red Ball from Yohoho Games is one of our most popular games.
What changes occurred on the platform over the past year?
The main changes affected the catalog. In 2024, more than 29,000 games were published, including projects from famous studios. At the same time, the content requirements from both players and the platform increased. New standards were introduced, resulting in the removal of over 30,000 games from the catalog for non-compliance. For comparison, in 2023, about 17,000 games were published, and 9,000 were removed. Today, approximately 28,000 games are featured on "Yandex Games," with a shift in focus from quantity to quality.
Moreover, our platform is actively expanding in international markets: 40% of players come to "Yandex Games" from other countries. To account for audience preference differences between the CIS and other regions, we created a separate international game rating. This allowed us to tailor the catalog to cultural specifics and significantly improve the user experience.
Has the format of working with developers changed?
An active community of indie developers has formed around the platform: almost 9,000 participants in Telegram! They communicate and help each other. We support developers by providing increasingly more professional tools, such as advanced analytics for products, monetization, and technical aspects.
Last year, the demand for A/B testing grew significantly, with developers actively using them to compare promotional materials and game parameters. Currently, none of our web competitors offer similar capabilities.
Additionally, we invite experienced specialists for game reviews and conduct interviews with industry professionals. These formats were launched in 2024 on our YouTube channel. We believe that supporting young developers is an important contribution to the industry's development.
Yandex Games Developers' Channel on YouTube
How has the web games market changed over the year?
The ability to start playing with just a couple of clicks without installation makes web games increasingly accessible and popular. The trend toward cross-platform play has strengthened: developers see new and profitable opportunities in the web. There is also a significant growth of interest in web games in the professional community: more round tables and presentations where game development specialists share their experiences are held at conferences.
China Digital Entertainment Congress (CDEC), China Joy 2024
Web games can be said to be experiencing a renaissance, attracting deserved attention from major market players. Alongside giants like WeChat and YouTube, Discord has also moved toward the web by introducing Activities. Unity, in turn, sees WebGPU as a promising direction for development, which is why Unity 6 will focus on the web. Given that about half of the games on our platform are developed using Unity, this is great news for all developers.
The market is evolving and growing, and we are pleased to realize our contribution to this.
What trends do you anticipate in your niche in 2025?
It is commonly believed that the web is limited to hyper-casual games with ad monetization. However, the past year has shown that the situation is changing. The ability to host projects with in-game monetization on "Yandex Games" has existed for some time, but last year, we saw an increase in such casual and mid-core projects. Overall, more games that previously earned solely from advertising have begun to implement various monetization mechanics and have significantly increased their revenues. These projects demonstrate high player engagement, confirming that the web audience is open to more complex games and willing to pay for bonuses, clan support, or advantages over other players.
Last year, other web platforms also noted this trend and added support for in-game monetization. We are confident that in 2025, there will be a leap and a transition to a hybrid model of monetizing games on the web.
What are your plans for 2025?
This year, we plan to maintain our growth pace. We will be enhancing the platform as a product, improving content quality, and refining the recommendation system to offer players better personalized selections.
For developers, we will provide even more features for analytics, monetization, and player acquisition. Additionally, we will continue to support our developer community by releasing helpful materials, conducting interviews with interesting speakers, and sharing experiences—all of which will be available on our Telegram channel for developers. Join us!