Inside the ‘Monopoly Go’ Phenomenon: Scopely Publishing Exec on Mobile Game’s $5 Billion Revenue Milestone and That ‘Pokemon Go’ Acquisition

In May, “Monopoly Go!” became the fastest mobile game in history to surpass $5 billion in lifetime revenue. The free-to-play Scopely-produced title hit that mark in just 24 months post-launch thanks to its more than 10 million daily active players.

“We’re not only happy, but feel incredibly blessed and fortunate to have a game that not only has reached that major milestone, which is fantastic, but for us, I think what’s more important than the financial metric is it shows us and tells us that players and consumers are loving the game,” Scopely’s senior vice president of publishing Eric Wood told Variety‘s senior business writer, TV and video games, Jennifer Maas, during Wednesday’s episode of Variety‘s “Strictly Business” podcast.

“They’re not only contributing their money to the game, but more importantly, they’re contributing their time,” Wood said. “I think that’s the thing that’s most important to us. We want to build experiences for consumers and for fans that completely resonate with them and for them. They have so many considerations, I would say, when you think about all the things that are coming at them, day after day, moment after moment. Whether it be streaming to podcasts to what have you, which are all amazing — but they give us just a little slice of their time every day. And so with that, we are so appreciative and grateful”

Founded in 2011, Scopely is the top mobile games company in the U.S. While best known for its immense “Monopoly Go!” success, Scopely is the maker behind multiple top mobile games, including “Stumble Guys,” “Star Trek Fleet Command,” and “Marvel Strike Force,” and recently acquired some of tech company Niantic’s key gaming assets, including the global sensation “Pokemon Go!” and other titles.

Over the past year, Scopely has set multiple records, including surpassing $10 billion in lifetime revenue and seeing its games downloaded more than 1 billion times.

Wood spoke with Variety‘s “Strictly Business” at length about “Monopoly Go’s” major milestone, as well plans for “Pokemon Go” following the Niantic deal and the upcoming in-game collaboration between “Stumble Guys” and Universal’s new “Jurassic World Rebirth.”

“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes debut every Wednesday and can be downloaded at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.