Animoca Brands' Garfield mobile games hit 30M downloads

Animoca Brands, which recently spun off from parent company Animoca, announced today that its Garfield mobile game franchise has surpassed 30 million installs. That’s not gigantic by some brand standards, but it’s still worth celebrating.

And in honor of the cartoon cat’s 36th birthday, Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands is launching a bunch of special promotions for all of its Garfield titles. From now until June 23, Animoca Brands is reducing the price of all its Garfield paid apps and is offering a 50 percent bonus for all virtual currency purchases in Garfield freemium apps.

Altogether, Animoca’s apps have been installed more than 230 million times. In that context, the importance of using licensed brands in mobile, such as Garfield, is pretty clear. There are a lot of mobile-game publishers out there, and Animoca Brands is using Garfield to help set itself apart.

“Garfield is lovable and relatable by anyone who has ever hit the snooze button one too many times or snuck in an extra piece of pie when no one was looking,” said Jim Davis, Garfield’s creator. “The team at Animoca Brands has done an excellent job of bringing Garfield to life through mobile games that are fun to play and true to the charm, humor, and mischievousness that embodies the Garfield brand.”

Animoca first raised funding in 2011 from Intel Capital and IDG-Accel. In May 2013, it raised a strategic investment from Chinese web-game maker Forgame. Animoca has 175 employees.

“It is an honor to help Garfield celebrate his 36th birthday with these special app promotions,” said Robby Yung, the chief executive officer of Animoca Brands. “Despite his laziness, this most illustrious and incomparable of cats has entertained hundreds of millions of people in his career, and we consider ourselves privileged to have delivered Garfield-based games to another 30 million mobile users.”

Animoca Brands’ Garfield-themed mobile games are published and operated by its subsidiary studio, Web Prancer.