Playrix

The company was founded by Dmitry and Igor Bukhman in 2004 in Vologda, Russia. Playrix originally specialized in developing casual computer games.[3]

Since 2011, the company has been developing free-to-play games for smartphones and tablets.[4]

In 2013, Playrix launched Township, its first free-to-play mobile game in the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It later became available on Google Play,[5] the Amazon Appstore,[6] the Mac App Store,[7][8] and the Windows Phone Store.[9] The game is a combination of city-building and farming.

In April 2015, the company announced the launch of its second free-to-play mobile project — Fishdom: Deep Dive,[10] a match-3 puzzle game, was released worldwide in the App Store in August 2015.[11][12]

In August 2016, Playrix released another match-3 game — Gardenscapes.[13]

In September 2016, the company became the highest grossing mobile game developer in the CIS and Baltic states region according to App Annie.[14] In the second quarter, Playrix ranked in the Top 20 biggest mobile game developers in the world.[15]

In mid-2017, the company launched Homescapes — a Gardenscapes spin-off that is also a match-3 game.[16]

In August 2017, the company became the leading mobile game publisher in Europe[17] based on revenue from Google Play and the App Store. In 2018 Playrix became the 9th highest-grossing game publisher globally on iOS and Android.[18][19]

In April 2019, Igor and Dmitry Bukhman made it onto the Bloomberg billionaire index. Their net worth is $1.4 billion each.[3]

In late 2019, Playrix launched a free-to-play game called Wildscapes, a match-3 game similar to their previous titles Homescapes and Gardenscapes.

Playrix acquired Armenian mobile game developer Plexonic for an unknown sum in March 2020,[20] and later purchased Croatia-based publisher and developer Cateia Games, choosing to rebrand the studio as Playrix Croatia and retaining its 40 staff members.[21]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Playrix reported an increase in downloads and profits. According to co-founder Igor Bukhman, from mid-March through mid-May, 165 million new players were recorded downloading Playrix games, double the number of downloads just two months prior to the pandemic. Additionally, the company claimed a record-high revenue from April to June 2020, seeing a 40% increase in profits, and holding at nearly $1 billion through the first half of 2020.[22] In response to the pandemic, in April 2020, Playrix paid each of their 2,100 employees an additional one-off payment of $650 to aid in financial support.[23]

• In 2014, Township was named one of the best Mac games of the year according to Apple.[30]
• By the end of 2016, Fishdom was on the Top Trending list according to Google Play.[31]
• In 2016, Gardenscapes was listed as one of the best apps in the Best Games category on iPad Russia in the App Store[32] and in the Most Irresistible category on Google Play.[10]
• In 2016, Gardenscapes was named Game of the Year by Facebook.[33]
• In 2018, Gardenscapes won in the Best Game Management & Live Ops category at the Mobile Games Awards.[34]

Playrix has been criticised for its use of deceptive or false advertisements on mobile advertisement platforms such as AdMob.[35] Advertisements for many of their games like Fishdom, Gardenscapes, and Homescapes display gameplay that does not represent the actual gameplay of the product in question.[36][37] For example, Homescapes advertisements represent the gameplay as repairing a home by selecting the correct tool, while in reality, it is a match-3 game.[38] In September 2020, the United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority ruled that said adverts were misleading and "must not appear again in the form complained of".[39][40]

• Official website
• By the end of 2018, Playrix entered the top ten most profitable mobile companies in the world (in Russian)
• Playrix scores another big match-3 mobile game hit with Homescapes