On October 30, 2026, SOFTGAMES turns 20. What began in 1999 as a school project is today a leading instant games company: around 2.5 million daily players, games on six major platforms and more, and about 140 people across the group. Still independent and founder owned, we have one goal: to become the daily habit of casual gamers, wherever they play.
It started with an unfair situation
In 1999, in a school computer class in Berlin, Alexander Krug had to build a website. He couldn’t decide between software and games and picked a name that covers both: SOFTGAMES. His friends were programming small games that hardly anyone could play, so he built a site that gave indie developers a stage, players and feedback. In 2006, together with his brother André, he turned it into a company.
Feature phones, browsers and HTML5: reinventing ourselves
Our first projects were mobile games for German TV broadcasters, including the official mobile game for “Germany’s Next Topmodel”. Viewers ordered them from a TV banner and downloaded them to their phones. Then the iPhone arrived. We tried social games and browser games, and in 2012 we pivoted to a B2B HTML5 games publishing platform for third party sites. Over the years we launched more than 500 games.
How we became an instant games company
In 2016, Facebook asked us to join Instant Games as one of its global launch partners. We tested our back catalogue and found an audience we had not expected: older women in the US who love match 3 and solitaire. We built more games for them, and several became long running hits. We also changed our approach, from four games a month to four games a year, with more quality and deeper gameplay.
In 2021, Bubble Shooter Pro reached over one million players a day, and we sold our web games distribution business to Azerion to focus fully on instant games. In 2023 we held the number one top grossing IAP and IAA positions on Samsung Instant. In November 2024, players had popped one trillion bubbles in Bubble Shooter Pro on Instant Games alone.
Every game on every platform
Our vision is cross platform: we want to be where casual gamers are. In 2025 we diversified our channels and launched on Reddit, Discord, YouTube Playables and web portals such as CrazyGames, next to Meta, Microsoft and Samsung. Our games stay instantly accessible and playable on any device, and we are following our players on to the mobile app stores.
What comes next: a home for the world’s best instant games
In August 2026, we acquired the back catalogue of 19 instant games from Funday Games, including Chess Quest. Funday Games continues independently with its new strategic focus. We want to be the go to home for the world’s best instant games, and we are looking for web and mobile casual games, catalogues and studios with proven audiences. We invest in AI enabled tools to release and update games faster, and we keep deals simple and fair. Read our acquisition strategy.
Thank you
To every player, platform partner, developer in our network, freelancer, colleague and former team member: this anniversary is yours as well. The next 20 years start now.
Play our games · Acquisition strategy · Join our team
