Scope announced several key milestones achieved to date: $10 billion in lifetime revenue for its mobile games and one billion downloads across its entire portfolio.
Exclusively for GamesBeat, Scopely said it reached these milestones in 2024 and its players have also logged over 15 billion hours of gameplay to date.
Players have clocked these hours in the Los Angeles-based company’s games like Monopoly, go ahead!, The guys are tripping, Marvel Strike Force, Star Trek Fleet Command And Dice with friends.
I’ve written about the launch of each of these games and Scopely covered from the start. I always thought its approach to partnering with game developers was smart and its approach to user acquisition was interesting. But it was just another mobile games company, and its success was never guaranteed. It took the crazy success of Monopoly, go ahead! – six years in the making – and the $4.9 billion acquisition by Savvy Games Group to consolidate its lead.
Scopely’s momentum is hard to ignore. The brand is now the leading mobile gaming company in the United States and among the top 5 in the world outside of China.
From humble beginnings to a global power
Eunice Lee, COO of Scopely, explained how the company found success with its Scopely “operating system” and “learning machine” at the recent GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games event on December 12.
Scopely’s success didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it takes over thirteen years.
In a recent company blog reflecting on the company’s milestones, co-CEOs Walter Driver and Javier Ferreira acknowledged the long – and sometimes painful – journey, writing: “Even though we have celebrated a number of victories public this year, they were the result of years of work. hard work and passion. Having a long-term mindset is essential to game creation and often comes with unseen challenges. But our Scopeleans continue to persevere through it all, which is what makes this industry and Scopely so special.
Founded in 2011 in Los Angeles, Scopely is built on the core belief that mobile phones are the next great forum for entertainment. With just 10 employees, the company launched its first iconic game “Dice With Buddies” in May of its inception.
The social dice game is off to a strong start, amassing a dedicated following. It wasn’t until 2014 that the franchise really took off after Scopely struck one of its first major intellectual property partnerships: a deal with Hasbro for the rights to Yahtzee. In 2015, the Dice franchise expanded to include “Yahtzee With Buddies.”
More than a decade later, Scopely’s Dice franchise remains Scopely’s longest-running franchise, grossing well over $1 billion in revenue over its entire lifespan.
The company itself has also grown exponentially. With more than 2,400 employees and offices in more than a dozen countries, Scopely has built a game portfolio that touches nearly every genre and platform.
Embracing a cross-platform future
Although the company’s roots are in mobile entertainment, pushing the boundaries of cross-platform gaming is part of Scopely’s ongoing strategy. 2024 marked the game maker’s first foray into launching a mobile-to-console product, with “Stumble Guys” for Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
“We had a lot of firsts this year with our teams taking big steps to drive innovation for our players,” Driver and Ferreira wrote.
Stumble Guys fans are no longer tied to a single device to play the Party Battle Royale game, and Android and iOS users can now interact seamlessly with early console players. As a result, the company has added millions of dollars to the engaged and active global community of Stumblers.
Driver and Javier note that we can expect more platform-agnostic games in the future from Scopely, acknowledging that the Stumble Guys console push “has also allowed other Scopely teams to offer experiences on new platforms.
The Scopely culture
Scopely attributes much of its success over the past thirteen years to its unique work culture, driven by ambition, acceptance of failure, and, above all, a dedication to learning.
From the beginning of its founding, Driver and his team established key cultural principles that continue to shape how Scopely operates today: play to win; care deeply; arouse passion and gain loyalty; iterate toward greatness; and live the adventure.
According to its co-CEOs, these principles have helped Scopely win more than 100 awards this year – a record in company history. Recognitions included #1 mobile game creator on PocketGamer.biz’s Top 50 list, Top Publisher by PocketGamer.biz and GamingOnPhone, Game of the Year for Monopoly Go! and the 100 most influential companies in the world according to Time Magazine.
As Lee noted during his fireside chat with gaming veteran Shelby Moledina, Scopely executives often cite the company’s Learning Machine culture — built on open communication to quickly share learnings across teams – as the reason the game maker has been able to grow so quickly, winning across a variety of genres and platforms, and innovating revenue metrics.
However, Ferreira and Driver are quick to acknowledge that Scopely’s goal goes far beyond a bottom line: “While revenue trajectory can be an indicator of success, it’s not why we do this work . Every Scopelean shows up every day to improve the lives of millions through gaming.
This commitment, in turn, gives us the freedom to invest in new opportunities, new games and new experiences for players around the world. »
