Funplus has been quietly making mobile games since 2010, and it may surprise you to learn that two of its games have generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue.
The Beijing-based company has grown to more than 1,000 employees across six studios, with recent strategy game hits King of Avalon: Dragon Warfare and Guns of Glory. It also recently launched Z Day: Hearts of Heroes, a post-apocalypse zombie strategy game.
Oren Bennett, game operations for FunPlus, said in an interview with GamesBeat that King of Avalon has generated more than $721 million in revenue since 2016, and Guns of Glory has generated more than $510 million since launching in 2017. Both games are massively multiplayer online strategy games that keep players coming back with constant updates.
Founded in 2010 by Andy Zhong, the original Funplus grew fast on the strength of titles such as Family Farm, Farm Farm Seaside, Royal Story, and Fantasy Slots on iOS, Google Play, and Amazon. Those titles did better in the West than in China itself, and that’s what is still unique about Funplus and its audience, as it makes games in China for the global stage. After some internal infrastructure adjustments in 2016, FunPlus focused on new titles like King of Avalon and Guns of Glory.
Above: Guns of Glory has generated more than $510 million in revenue.
Since then, the new Funplus has been fairly quiet, though it did announce a $50 million mobile game investment fund in 2016. It also started a Funplus Esports division that operates the League of Legends Southeast Asia Tour. It also has its own esports team.
The new games are generating most of their revenue in the U.S., where the average revenue per user is highest. The KingsGroup division is making the strategy titles, and it has more in the works. The goal for 2019 is to generate $1.5 billion in revenue.
“These games are heavy player-versus-player (PVP) games that attract only the most active and battle-driven players all over the world who don’t mind spending a lot of time and money playing them and also the games’ other core function is the alliance, which glues the players into an in-game and outside game community,” Bennett said. “It definitely helped the games’ daily active users big time.”
Above: Z Day: Hearts of Heroes is Funplus’ newest game.
Funplus is currently operating four SLG games (or simulation games, as the strategy titles are known in China) and three casual games. Three or four titles are slated to come out this year. Bennett said the company will start being more public about its progress with games, and so we should expect to hear more about it in the future.
“Z Day looks like a good success with just a short time so far,” Bennett said.
