Scopely’s 2023 smash hit Monopoly GO has reached another mighty milestone today, officially surpassing $2 billion in revenue in only 10 months.
Interestingly the second billion was generated in less than half the time of the first, proving that momentum hasn’t only sustained but accelerated. That's another lap of the board completed in only three months.
Monopoly GO's doubling of revenue from $1 billion to $2 billion is the fastest on record in mobile gaming. Scopely co-CEO Javier Ferreira described the trajectory as "extraordinary" and community engagement as "exceptional", with retention rates having far outperformed the company’s hopes prior to launch.
Harder, better, faster, stronger
"The remarkable long-term stickiness of the experience has challenged what we thought was possible in casual games," Ferreira said.
More than ten million people currently play Monopoly GO with eight million playing every day, accounting for over 70% of the game's total playerbase. It’s a major achievement and certainly pays off the seven years of development that went into making a mobile Monopoly hit.
The title is of course based on Hasbro’s famous board game IP, but this isn’t the sole cause of the game’s phenomenal success. Scopely's SVP of marketing Jamie Berger insisted only last week that "IP cannot create success. It’s a platform. It’s an opportunity", suggesting that Monopoly GO isn’t a success due to its IP or its approach to user acquisition, but to its great gameplay and social strengths.
It's that aspect of user acquisition that has seen the hit game come under scrutiny. While the success has been visibly enormous, rumours have suggested that huge investment behind the scenes were at play meaning that top line numbers weren't necessarily what was being banked.
Now, as part of the $2bn milestone announcement Ferreira has revealed that "less than a quarter of lifetime revenue" has been spent on marketing, which still equates to a potential $500 million of the total $2 billion. Let's face it - this is still an unprecedented sum for a mobile game, but Scopely can evidently afford it and it's strategy of investing to expand Monopoly GO would appear to be paying off.
Changing the game
"As anyone in the games industry knows all too well, the road to success is never linear. There were moments during the seven-year development process to get to Monopoly GO where we questioned if we were on the right path, and, to be perfectly honest, there were plenty of times when we were not," reflected Ferreira.
"Over the course of its development, the Monopoly GO team evolved many times. We started with a small group in Los Angeles and, fast forward to just before launch in April 2023, we had 150+ best-in-class game makers from over a half dozen countries working on the experience - stacking studios and expertise together."
And it wasn’t only the team that evolved. What started out as a synchronous PVP codenamed Boardwalk transformed into Top Hat and later the Monopoly GO known worldwide today, and is a flagship case of changing trajectory ultimately paying off. After all, not only is Monopoly GO the fastest mobile game to reach $1 billion - even beating Pokémon Go and Genshin Impact - it’s now also the fastest to reach the $2 billion milestone, all in under a year.
