into meltdown, more than 5,000 people were trying to access the website to play Dancing Bush and in the end, the game was played more than a billion times around the globe. Like many business successes, our key was
timing. We released Dancing Bush just before George Bush announced he was running for president, which led to us being approached for an interview with Fox News who wanted to know whether George Bush had funded the game. It was this interview that helped to put Miniclip
on the map, and propel us over the next two decades to become one of the world’s largest games companies, with more than 50 million daily players.
Are you surprised at how far Miniclip has come? From the early days of Miniclip, we’ve stayed true to our original goal of unleashing the gamer in everyone by making things highly accessible, with huge global appeal. This became even more important as we entered the world of mobile games. We all live increasingly busy lives and are exceptionally time-poor, so anything we create needs to be easy to pick up and play. It’s this focus that has led to us achieving more than 50 million daily active users and hitting the milestone of four billion downloads on mobile. Our rapid growth over the years has been
supported by our focus on talent and culture. They say that 80% of company culture comes from its founder, and we’ve always made sure that culture permeates out. A strong culture isn’t something that just happens, it needs a lot of constant work. As a result, we have an incredibly diverse
employee base of over 1000 people all over the world, which is vital when it comes to tapping into new potential markets. We believe that it is critical to have local knowledge within Miniclip so that we can ensure our games are culturally relevant.
There’s obviously been a huge change in how people consume games and gaming content. How have you managed to ride those changes? The games market is constantly evolving and is almost unrecognisable now from what it was more than 20 years ago. It moves quickly, with new trends emerging daily. Monitoring and reacting to trends is a vital part of mobile games development, and helps us create experiences that we know players will enjoy. To do this, we’re constantly monitoring wider industry trends both from our competitors, and of course across social media more broadly.
Following a very successful ten years of web-
based games with
Miniclip.com, we made the decision to enter the mobile games industry in 2009 when we opened our first studio in Portugal. The development of some of our biggest games takes place there, including 8 Ball Pool,
Agar.io and Carrom Pool. Mobile gaming has become a key space for
our audience. Over the last 21 years Miniclip, and the industry, has undergone an incredible transformation. Our players have made it clear that they want us to maximise our efforts on mobile, so this is where our focus remains to deliver the best experiences possible.
What has been the biggest highlight of the last 21 years? The growth of 8 Ball Pool has been our proudest achievement. Having started life as an online flash game on
Miniclip.com in 2010, it quickly went on to become the biggest game on the website, so we knew it would be a hit on mobile. We adapted 8 Ball Pool for mobile in 2013, where it became the most downloaded mobile pool game only a short time later in 2014. Since then, 8 Ball Pool has gone on to become
our biggest game, with more than a billion downloads and a Guinness World Records title for the most downloaded mobile pool game. We’ve always ensured it is accurate in its representation of the actual sport, which has been key to its enduring appeal and overall success over the last 11 years.
July 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 59
Rob Small, president and co-founder
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