After ten years on the market, Township has generated over $2.1bn in revenue from over 600m downloads, Playrix has told us.
The firm’s chief business development officer Maxim Kirilenko told us that Playrix currently has around 100m MAU across its game portfolio, and that 10 year-old builder Township still represents a good chunk of that player base.
A decade ago, the decision to move Township from its original home on Facebook to mobile proved to be a turning point for the entire company, Kirilenko tells us.
“Going mobile with Township was a pivotal move,” he says. “The game was very successful and became a launching ground for Playrix’s future projects. From a technical and game design perspective, Playrix’s future games Fishdom, Gardenscapes, and Homescapes owe a great deal to their city-building counterpart.”
Township’s mix of match 3, farming and city building was created by a team of around 20; today the Township team is around 130.
“Obviously having social gaming experience helped with the success of Township, but all in all it was a combination of factors that we got right,” says Kirilenko of the game’s launch a decade ago.
“We closely monitored the market and studied our competitors. When adding content, we heavily relied on the game’s metrics, and did a lot of A/B testing trying to improve retention and monetisation.”
Kirilenko says Playrix was also very in-touch with player feedback and deep into the detail of player data. “We approach our games as a system, and we’re very meticulous when it comes to analysing and interpreting market signals,” he continues. “Of course having four hit games in our portfolio helps a great deal and we make good use of it.”
“Township is a very unique game – first of all, it’s 10 years old and it just keeps growing,” he adds. “Secondly, Township is unique as a product: it’s a well-balanced mix of city-builder, match 3, and adventure. On its 10th anniversary, we can firmly say that the game is doing better than ever and the development team is set to keep it that way.”
