The first year of Zynga's Game of Thrones: Legends from launch to $24 million

• Director of design Joe Canose says the team had to adapt beyond its causal roots and learn the demands of a midcore audience.
• Community feedback has played a central role with the likes of dev diaries, Discord and direct engagement to shape the roadmap.
• Collaboration with HBO offers creative freedom while ensuring the overall brand authenticity.

As Game of Thrones: Legends celebrates its first year, Zynga’s team has been reflecting on what they’ve learned running a live game in a competitive mobile market.

For director of design Joe Canose, the experience has been just as much about understanding the community as it has been about refining the game. 

“We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished as a team in our first year. It’s been a journey filled with challenges and learning - not just about running Legends, but about who we are as a team," Canose reflects.

"There’s truly nothing like launching and operating a live game to shine a light on all the decisions you made along the way,” 

He also notes that connecting with players has been a personal highlight, learning what they like, what they don’t, and how the team can then adapt its plans to reflect the feedback they receive from players. 

“One of the biggest learnings has been understanding the expectations of a midcore audience. Zynga’s history is rooted in casual and social games, so launching a puzzle-RPG like Legends required us to build new muscles, especially around content cadence and feature releases.” 

Communication with players has been a key foundation to the game's journey, with Canose stating that the team learnt early on that players wanted clear communication and consistent updates. His key takeaway: "communication isn’t optional, it’s foundational.”

Scaling the team and developing new features

Speaking to Canose about the live ops behind Game of Thrones: Legends, he tells us that the core team is comprised of over 40 developers, and in addition, they have received support from talent from other Zynga games and external partners. Canose explains that the team can change over time depending on the feature or content focus at the time. 

One new central aspect of the game is War of the Three Banners, a feature aimed primarily at mid-to-late players that adds additional layers of strategy and depth to the game without disrupting the core loop. 

“One of the most important aspects of building a massive feature like this is getting a very early read on the mechanics and tuning, which is why I pushed the team to make early prototypes," says Canose.

"Quick and dirty throw-away stuff that designers can build with Google App Script. This is something I did on Star Wars: Commander years back and it really paid off.”

Canose tells us that while War of the Three Banners is set in King’s Landing, the team likes the idea of future conflicts taking place in other regions fans would enjoy, such as the Riverlands or the Stepstones.

Community engagement and measuring success

The mobile games market has evolved rapidly over the last year and Game of Thrones: Legends has had to adapt to keep pace with that. Canose notes that when he joined, the game’s original vision leaned heavily on Empire & Puzzles as a starting foundation for the game to grow from. 

“Over the past year, we’ve drawn inspiration for newer titles across the genre, not just puzzle-based ones. You’ll start to see more of that evolution reflected in the game in the months ahead.” 

Alongside gameplay evolution, retention and community engagement have been central to the team’s strategy. Bringing on a dedicated community manager late last year marked a turning point for the team as it enabled more direct communication with players through Discord, dev diaries and regular updates. 

“Right now I’m focused on expanding our community efforts with more consistent dev updates in different formats and actually giving the team more of a voice," says Canose. "It’s still evolving but we’re heading in the right direction.” 

For Game of Thrones: Legends, Canose explains that while monetisation KPIs drive many business decisions, design choices are guided by engagement and retention. The team tracks a wide array of metrics, including win rates, champion popularity, average damage, and moves per battle. 

The title hit $23.6 million in player spending across Google Play and the App Store for its first anniversary back in July. According to AppMagic, that number has now hit $24.6m. The game managed to make its first $1m in just 14 days.

Working with a high profile IP

Developing within the Game of Thrones universe comes with its advantages as Canose points out that the built-in fan interest removes guesswork about whether players care about the world. “It’s a dream. I’ve worked on Star Wars games in the past, and I genuinely enjoy the challenge of building within the constraints of a beloved IP.”

Canose tells us that collaboration with HBO has been constructive, providing the team with guidance without shutting things down, and offering creative solutions. He also says that the team respects their need to protect the authenticity of the brand. 

With the main Game of Thrones show now long over, we asked if there was the same level of appeal for the franchise as there was once before, and if new shows such as House of the Dragon and the upcoming Knights of the Seven Kingdoms are enough to peak new interest.

Canose claims these shows have reinvigorated the franchise and helped to maintain its cultural relevance.

“The appeal is still strong but it's evolved," he states. "Today we’re speaking more to the dedicated fanbase than the mass audience that turned in during the original run. That said, House of the Dragon has absolutely rekindled interest. Personally, it pulled me right back in and even inspired me to reread the books, so why not dive into a game too?”

Looking ahead, the team’s focus is on depth of engagement across PvE, PvP and Alliances. Canose shares that the team is working on some “iconic” updates to the companion upgrade paths and that there is a deep backlog of ideas.

“Success in year two means building a game that players want to return to, compete in, and share with others. We’ve done a lot of groundwork in year one, now it’s time to level up."

Zynga one the accolade for Best Marketing Campaign for the Game of Thrones: Legends Worldwide Launch at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2025. Check out the full list of winners here.