Scopely

Scopely, Inc. ( ) is an American video game developer and publisher. The company is headquartered in Culver City, California, with offices across the United States, EMEA and Asia, with its largest location in Barcelona, Spain. As of 2024, Scopely was the second-biggest mobile video game developer in the world in terms of revenue.

Scopely has both internal game development studios as well as partners with external development studios to create free-to-play games. Scopely creates both original games and ones based on popular entertainment brands.

History

Scopely was founded in 2011 in Los Angeles, California, by Walter Driver, Ankur Bulsara, Eric Futoran and Eytan Elbaz. Previously, Elbaz co-founded Applied Semantics, which was acquired by Google in 2003, and Bulsara was a software developer at MySpace.

In 2014, former Disney Interactive and Electronic Arts executive Javier Ferreira joined Scopely. Former Disney Interactive executive Tim O'Brien joined in 2014 as chief revenue officer.

In August 2015, Scopely ranked #9 on Inc.'s List of the 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies in America, and #1 in the US.

In October 2017, the company announced it was opening an office in Barcelona.

In May 2019, the company acquired Dublin-based DIGIT game studios, its collaborator on the mobile 4x strategy game '' Star Trek Fleet Command''.

In June 2019, the company shared it had surpassed $1 billion in lifetime revenues.

In January 2020, the company purchased FoxNext Games Los Angeles and its RPG game ''MARVEL Strike Force'', along with Cold Iron Studios, from The Walt Disney Company for an undisclosed amount. Scopely later sold Cold Iron Studios to Daybreak Game Company.

In April 2020, Scopely also acquired PierPlay game studio, its collaborator on the mobile word game ''Scrabble GO''.

In July 2021, Scopely invested in three games studios in Europe to co-create games and invest in developers.

In October 2021, Scopely acquired Game Show Network's online gaming division (GSN Games) from Sony in a $1 billion cash and stock deal. Sony Pictures took a minority stake in the company as a result.

Saudi-owned Savvy Games Group announced its intent to acquire Scopely, Inc for $4.9 billion on April 5, 2023. The acquisition was completed on July 13, 2023. Scopely remains an independently-operated company, headquartered in Culver City, California, part of the Savvy portfolio.

In June 2023, Scopely acquired Scotland-based Tag Games studio.

In February 2024, Scopely ended its publishing partnership with Global Worldwide game studio on the title ''Kingdom Maker'' and redeployed the Scopely team supporting the project to other games ''.''

In May 2024, Scopely was recognized by ''Time'' magazine on their annual TIME100 list recognizing the "100 Most Influential Companies in the World."

In January 2025, Scopely contributed to the FireAid benefit concert, produced by Irving Azoff, as a presenting sponsor to help wildfire relief efforts in the company's founding city of Los Angeles. Fundraising efforts from the Benefit raised more than $100 million.

On March 12, 2025, Niantic, Inc. announced plans to sell its video game division to Scopely in a reported $3.5 billion deal, which includes games such as ''Pokémon Go'', '' Pikmin Bloom'', and '' Monster Hunter Now'' and companion apps ''Campfire'' and ''Wayfarer''. The deal is expected to close later in 2025.

Games

In January 2012, Scopely launched its first free-to-play mobile game ''Dice With Buddies'', followed that year by ''Jewels With Buddies'' and ''Bubble Galaxy With Buddies'', which debuted as the #1 free app in the App Store. In April 2013, Scopely launched ''Mini Golf MatchUp'', a head-to-head game developed with New Zealand-based studio Rocket Jump. The game was #1 for free apps in the App Store in 49 countries and the #1 app on both the iPhone and the iPad in the U.S. In September 2013, Scopely launched ''Wordly'', a spelling game that reached #1 on the top free apps chart in the App Store, and was the first game with single-player mode developed by Scopely. In November 2013, the company launched the Skee-ball game ''Skee-ball Arcade'', which reached #1 overall in the App Store. In June 2014, Scopely launched ''Slots Vacation''. In July 2014, Scopely acquired Space Inch's ''Disco Bees''.

In April 2015, Scopely partnered with Hasbro to launch the only officially licensed Yahtzee game, ''Yahtzee With Buddies'', on iOS, Android and the Apple Watch. The game saw more than 1 million downloads in its first four days. In 2016, Scopely released ''Dice With Ellen'', a Yahtzee-style dice game with Ellen DeGeneres.

In May 2015, Scopely signed a multi-year partnership deal with Ireland's DIGIT games studios. The collaboration led to the acquisition of ''Kings of the Realm'', a fantasy strategy MMO game.

In August 2015, Scopely partnered with '' The Walking Dead'' series creator Robert Kirkman and Skybound Entertainment to create '' The Walking Dead: Road to Survival'', the first free-to-play mobile game based on the graphic novels. The game saw 4 million downloads in its first week, was a Top 25 Grossing Game in 17 countries, and became the 6th consecutive #1 game released by Scopely.

In 2016, the company partnered with Sony Pictures TV to launch ''Wheel of Fortune: Free Play'', based on the television game show.

Scopely announced a partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2017 and launched the match-3 game ''WWE Champions''. It won a Webby Award for People's Voice in the sports games category.

As of 2018, 40 million people have installed ''Walking Dead: Road to Survival'' since its release.

In 2018, Scopely had four top-grossing games: ''WWE Champions'', ''The Walking Dead: Road to Survival'', ''Wheel of Fortune: Free Play'', and ''Yahtzee With Buddies''.

In November 2018, Scopely launched '' Star Trek Fleet Command'', partnering with CBS Interactive and DIGIT Game Studios. In December 2018, Scopely launched ''Looney Tunes World of Mayhem'', a multi-player role-playing game featuring Looney Tunes characters licensed from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, developed in partnership with Aquiris Game Studio. The game was downloaded more than one million times on its launch day.

In 2019, the company shared '' Star Trek Fleet Command'' surpassed $50 million in revenue in four months.

In 2020, the company launched ''Scrabble GO''. In June 2020, it was announced that the game was the "best launch ever for a mobile word game."

In 2022, the company acquired the mobile party battle royale game '' Stumble Guys'' from Kitka Games''.''

In April 2023, Scopely launched ''Monopoly Go!''. ''MONOPOLY GO!'' became the biggest mobile game of 2023, generating $1 billion in revenue. The game is now the biggest mobile game launch of all time.

Funding

In 2013, Scopely raised a seed round of $8.5 million, led by Anthem Venture Partners, with participation from The Chernin Group, Greycroft Venture Partners, and New Enterprise Associates. In 2014, Scopely raised a $35 million Series A funding round, led by Evolution Media. In 2016, Scopely raised $55 million in Series B funding. In 2017, the company announced $60 million in Series C funding, led by Revolution Growth, and then raised an additional $100 million from Greenspring Associates in 2018.

In 2019, the company announced $200 million in Series D financing, valuing the company at $1.7 billion. In March 2020, the company announced another $200 million in Series D financing, valuing the company at $1.9 billion.

In October 2020, Scopely announced $340 million in Series E financing, valuing the company at $3.3 billion.

References

Further reading

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External links

* {{Official website, http://www.scopely.com

Companies based in California
Video game companies based in California
Video game companies established in 2011
Video game development companies
Video game publishers
Mobile game companies
American companies established in 2011
Companies based in Culver City, California
2011 establishments in California
2023 mergers and acquisitions