Why Scopely hosted real-world event Dough Fest for Monopoly Go

Scopely’s Monopoly Go has bagged more than $5 billion in two years to date.

That’s perhaps afforded the developer the opportunity to get more creative with its marketing pushes and community activations. In September, Scopely organised its first hybrid community event.

It paired together its first free-to-attend real-world food and sticker trading festival in London, Dough Fest, with a global in-game trading event called Trade Fest.

The company claims the event led to record engagement in the UK, attracted tens of thousands new traders worldwide, and led to an uplift in social invites. Specifically, in the UK, Scopely says it saw double-digit growth in organic installs and reactivations, while social invites increased by 45%. Globally, Trade Fest drove an 80% increase in trading activity over the weekend.

To get an idea of why it would choose a trading-focused event - Scopely says that more than three billion stickers have been traded in the game since launch. Speaking to PocketGamer.biz, Scopely VP of regional marketing Sophie Young says players had been clamouring for a way to bring their in-game social connections into the real world.

It’s worth noting that Scopely has soft-launched a Monopoly Go Chat app, too, to help players connect further. The game's Discord, meanwhile, has more than one million members.

“We saw it in our vibrant Discord communities, in the friendships forming daily, and in how often players expressed their desire to meet the people they’d been trading with for months or even years,” says Young.

“That insight became the starting point for our first large-scale IRL moment. But we also knew only a small fraction of our global audience would be able to attend in person, so it was essential that whatever we built had a complementary in-game component that allowed everyone to participate. 

“That’s why we created Dough Fest, a London-based food and sticker trading event, alongside Trade Fest, a global in-game event where we doubled sticker trading limits for the first time across the same weekend.”

Culinary festival

Earlier this year, Scopely acquired Pokémon Go developer Niantic's games business in a $3.5 billion deal. The developer is known for hosting ticketed real-world events. Did Scopely tap that expertise for Monopoly Go?

“We’ve long admired what Pokémon Go has achieved in pioneering real world play,” states Young.

“Their ability to bring people together through shared adventure is extraordinary and having that level of expertise within the Scopely portfolio is inspiring. It gives us access to valuable knowledge about how real world experiences can deepen player connection.

“That said, the spark for Dough Fest came directly from our own community.”

Dough Fest, which took place in East London’s Truman Brewery (no, not that one), drew from Monopoly Go’s Bon Appétit sticker album from the game’s Culinary Season, which celebrates dishes around the globe.

The event offered out doughnuts from Bread Ahead and food critic Grace Dent, pizza from Napoli on the Road, and other treats. Dough Fest reached the 1,000 attendee capacity, with a further 8,000 said to be on the waitlist.

“Beyond the food, we built interactive moments and dedicated sticker trading zones designed to mirror the joy of in-game collecting and trading,” explains Young.

“We also brought items from the Bon Appétit album to life - each hero creation became a collectable in-game sticker connecting real world taste to digital play. Seeing players trade stickers face-to-face for the first time, many meeting people they’d traded with online for months, was incredibly moving and perfectly captured the spirit of the community. 

“To ensure everyone could take part, we paired the festival with our first-ever 48 hour global Trade Fest, doubling trading limits worldwide. The response was amazing. Trading activity surged and we saw our highest spike in new traders for 2025. Whether they were at Dough Fest or joining from home, players everywhere felt part of one shared celebration.”

Young says there’s an appetite for more events like this, particularly around trading. The team is currently exploring what future real-world experiences could look like, but it’s too early to share specifics.

“What matters most is creating moments that deepen joy and connection for players, whether those moments happen online, offline, or somewhere in between,” states Young.

“As for Pokémon Go, we have immense admiration for what that team has achieved and now we have the privilege of learning from their real world play expertise. There’s a lot of creative inspiration there. But this weekend was ultimately about Monopoly Go and the extraordinary global community that continues to make it the game the world plays together.”

Additional reporting by Craig Chapple.