Press release

Miniclip announces evolution of web gaming platform after 21 years as it deepens focus on mobile

Fan favourites 8 Ball Pool and Agar.io will remain available for web players as Miniclip repurposes website and develops its focus on mobile

London, 7th April 2022 Miniclip, a global leader in digital games, is celebrating its 21st anniversary and the evolution of the Miniclip.com this summer. The iconic game developer and publisher will continue its focus on bigger and better mobile first experiences for its global audience, while fan favourites 8 Ball Pool and Agar.io will continue to be accessible for web players.


Miniclip.com, which will continue in its current format until summer 2022, has been an important part of Miniclip’s legacy and laid the foundation for the company to grow into the influential position it finds itself in today, with a global audience of 250 million mobile monthly active users.


Launched by President and Co-Founder Rob Small and Tihan Presbie in 2001, the site first hosted a single title, Dancing Bush, programmed by the duo in their apartment. During its time, Miniclip.com has hit many industry defining milestones, such as:

 
  • Dancing Bush became one of the first viral interactive game hits and is one of the most successful and longest running viral game campaigns of all time.
  • Miniclip.com was the originator of the mass free rich media content syndication model, with no paid advertising, instead bringing players in purely through word of mouth.
  • Miniclip.com became the #1 online games website in 2005, with more users than any other domain in the world.

In the following years the site grew into a thriving international community and a beloved home for a wide variety of content, from games to animation. Following changes to Miniclip.com in the summer, the website will become a destination for potential partners, prospective candidates and other business interests to access news and information about the brand.


Miniclip’s mobile focus began in 2010, with the company quickly finding a large audience for its wide variety of titles. In the following years, Miniclip’s growth has continued rapidly, tripling revenues over the last three years. To strengthen development capacity, this year saw the expansion of operations in Portugal with a brand-new studio.


In March 2022, Miniclip announced that it had surpassed a cumulative total of over 4 billion downloads across a catalogue of games that include Agar.io, Soccer Stars, and 8 Ball Pool. 8 Ball Pool was recently announced to have hit a milestone of 1 billion downloads and holds the Guinness World Records title for the ‘most downloaded mobile pool game’. Both 8 Ball Pool and Agar.io will still be available to online players following the new direction for the site.


Now an industry leader publishing and developing their games for mobile, Miniclip has completed multiple key acquisitions to extend their portfolio and help talented studios release chart topping titles. Puzzling.com, Green Horse Games, and GameBasics, the most recent newcomers to the ever-expanding Miniclip Group, have seen continued growth across their games while working cooperatively and with support from Miniclip’s considerable industry expertise.


To share the legacy of Miniclip.com and thank the players that made the company a success, Miniclip has planned celebrations over the next few months, with more details to be announced soon.


Robert Small, President and Co-Founder at Miniclip, said: “Miniclip has been such an important part of my life, from the early days of frantic development on Dancing Bush to the global company it is today. It’s impossible to sum up the pride and gratitude I feel seeing how much we have grown since our humble start. Under the fresh leadership of Saad as CEO, Miniclip has an even brighter future ahead of it as we maintain our mobile focus, and our players around the world will have so much to look forward to.”


-ENDS-


For press enquiries, please email miniclip@alfredlondon.com 


About Miniclip:


Miniclip is a global leader in digital games with a mission of ‘unleashing the gamer in everyone’. The Company develops, publishes and distributes highly engaging games to an audience of over 250 million monthly active users across mobile, social and online platforms. They operate in eight countries, with a global workforce of over 900 people across 13 locations.


Founded in 2001, the Company has successfully grown a huge global audience in over 195 countries and across six continents. Miniclip has a unique understanding of the digital games space and has developed a strong portfolio of over 60 high-quality mobile games, extensive worldwide distribution, and an internationally recognised brand name. To date, Miniclip's digital games, which include the franchises 8 Ball Pool™, Golf Battle™, Football Strike™, Carrom Pool™, and Agar.io™ have generated more than 4 billion downloads. Miniclip has more than 45 million daily active players reaching people across the world in the pursuit of ‘unleashing the gamer in everyone’.


In February 2015, Miniclip was excited to receive a large majority investment from Tencent, one of the world’s largest technology companies and the world’s largest games publisher. This new chapter in Miniclip’s history strengthens the Company’s position, with Tencent recognising its achievements to date and future potential.


In the past three years, as part of their ambitious growth plans, Miniclip have been delighted to welcome the teams from Playsport (famous for Motorsport Manager), Yakuto (creators of Darts of Fury), Masomo (home of Head Ball 2), Ilyon (designers of Bubble Shooter), Eight Pixels Square (Sniper Strike) operating as Miniclip Derby, Gamebasics (creators of OSM Online Soccer Manager) now operating as Miniclip Netherlands, Green Horse Games (home of Football Rivals), and most recently Supersonic Software Ltd., trading as Puzzling.com (the team behind the highly successful Puzzle Page and Picture Cross) to the Miniclip Group.


For more information, visit http://corporate.miniclip.com