Forge of Empires developer InnoGames sees revenue increase thanks to U.S. and mobile

As the mobile market continues to expand, game makers that previously focused on other platforms are starting to discover renewed success by embracing smartphones and tablets. InnoGames is one of those studios.

The German developer reported today that it generated more than $100 million in revenue during its fiscal 2014. That’s up in large part thanks to two factors: mobile and the United States. The company, which made a name for itself by releasing browser-based games Forge of Empires and Grepolis, finally started moving these to mobile. The result was more than a 500 percent increase in mobile revenue from those games on smartphone and tablet, which is a market that is expected to grow to $21 billion this year. InnoGames also saw a surge in the United States where its revenues grew by 100 percent over 2013.

“It has always been important for us to not only grow fast but to also do so in a sustainable manner,” InnoGames chief financial officer Armin Busen said. “Achieving a significant rise in revenue and a favorable profit, we managed to fulfill these goals in 2014.”

Innogames brought on 80 new team members in 2014 to boost its ranks to 350 in total. The studio expects to grow by around the same number in 2015.

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The company has five games performing well. That includes Forge of Empires, Grepolis, Tribal Wars, Tribal Wars 2, and The West. Forge of Empires, in particular, managed to crack the top  five of the charts for strategy games on iOS.

“That we managed to reach worldwide top rankings with one of our mobile games is an especially positive development”, InnoGames cofounder and chief executive officer Hendrik Klindworth said. “On the iPad, it was one of the five most successful new strategy games this year. Given the fact that the Android release is scheduled for the beginning of 2015, we are also very optimistic for the coming year.”

InnoGames now has around 150 million registered players, and it plans to continue to grow that number by primarily targeting games on iOS and Android.

“It is our goal to further conquer the mobile games market in 2015,” Klindworth said. “This is where we see the biggest potential for growth. However, a high level of quality is paramount to establish a successful game in the heavily fought over mobile games market. InnoGames’ employees at the new development location in Düsseldorf will help achieve this from January on.”