After two years, KakaoGame hits 20M monthly active users

After two years, mobile messaging network KakaoGame has hit more than 20 million monthly active users.

South Korea-based Kakao has become a huge player in mobile messaging networks with the launch of KakaoTalk, and its mobile social gaming platform, KakaoGame. The service is a pioneer in game discovery because it allows games to spread in a viral fashion among friends in a mobile messaging network. While it started in South Korea, KakaoGame is spreading around the globe, and it is inspiring mobile messaging networks to embrace games as a key pathway to monetization and engagement.

When KakaoGame launched on July 30, 2012, mobile gaming was limited to a small slice of the population. Today, it’s common in South Korea to spot parents and even grandparents playing mobile games, the company said.

KakaoGame offers 520 games in partnership with more than 230 developers. More than 520 million accumulated subscriptions have been recorded for these games, and each month, more than 20 million users, or 40 percent of the entire Korean population, play games via Kakao. An average player visits KakaoGame 5.2 times a week. Kakao said that before the launch of KakaoGame, the mobile game market in Korea was $423 million in 2011. By 2013, it had crossed $1.2 billion. In the first half of 2014, accumulated sales were $560 million.

“As KakaoGame reigns as the market leader and continues to advance the growth of the gaming population and industry, we are focused on delivering the highest quality and most captivating gaming experience to our users,” said Kane Lee, international PR team leader from Kakao. “We look forward to collaborating with our existing and new partners around the world to introduce more exciting titles to our Kakao gamers in the most convenient manner.”