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45 Soaring Video Games Companies & Startups (2024)

by Josh Howarth
January 29, 2024

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Pulling in $249.5B in revenue last year, the video game industry is now bigger than the movie and music industries combined.

And there’s still plenty of room for future growth. Analysts forecast that the gaming space will grow to $363.1B by 2027.

This list presents 45 growing video game startups that are disrupting the space.

1. Eneba

5-year search growth: 9,700%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2018

Location: Kaunas, Lithuania 

Funding: $9.6M (Series A)

What they do: Eneba is a global gaming marketplace that provides an easy-to-use platform for buying and selling video games. With over 4 million customers, Eneba offers a wide variety of games from all platforms and regions, as well as digital gift cards and other gaming-related products. Eneba also offers a loyalty program, allowing customers to earn Eneba Coins that can be used to save on future purchases.

2. FreshCut

5-year search growth: 431%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2020

Location: Los Angeles, California

Funding: $15M (Series B)

What they do: Live streaming gaming’s audience size is expected to hit 1B in 2023, growing a staggering 13.8% YoY since Twitch’s inception in 2010. FreshCut is aiming to take the most entertaining clips from live streamers and turn them into short form clips (similar to TikTok.)

A community token, FCD, is combined with their platform to unlock opportunities for both creators and viewers to “create-and-earn” and “engage-and-earn”.

3. Gaminate

5-year search growth: 629%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2019

Location: Warsaw, Poland

Funding: $600K (Early Stage VC) 

What they do: Gaminate is a platform that connects game developers with potential investors and publishers, enabling them to create high-quality games. The platform offers a range of services, including access to a network of investors and publishers, game development tools, and resources to help developers get their games to market. Gaminate aims to empower game developers and help them bring their visions to life by providing them with the support and resources they need to succeed.

4. Drop Fake

5-year search growth: -4%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2021

Location: San Francisco, CA

Funding: $9M (Seed)

What they doDrop Fake is working on a cross-platform, 4X strategy game. What makes Drop Fake unique is its remote-first policy, which allows all employees to work remotely. The startup directly credits this policy for the fact that 50% of its workers are from underrepresented groups.

5. Epik Prime

5-year search growth: 200%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2018

Location: Singapore, Singapore

Funding: Undisclosed

What they doEpik Prime works with video game developers to facilitate the launch of in-game digital items. The Nintendo-backed startup currently works with over 250 companies spanning more than 1,000 video game brands.

6. Gala Games

5-year search growth: 350%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2018

Location: San Francisco, CA

Funding: $5M (Series A)

What they do: Gala Games is a blockchain-based gaming platform that aims to revolutionize the gaming industry by giving players full ownership and control of their in-game assets. The platform uses the blockchain technology to enable players to earn and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as well as cryptocurrency for their in-game activities. With a range of games in development, Gala Games promises a new gaming experience that is transparent, secure, and rewarding for all players.

7. Epic Games

5-year search growth: 75%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 1991

Location: Cary, North Carolina

Funding: $6.4B (Secondary Market)

What they doEpic Games has become one of the conglomerates of the video game industry. Their best-known title, Fortnite, has over 350M registered players (in 2020, this game alone brought in $5.5B in revenue for the company.) Besides being a significant player within this industry, Epic Games has also undertaken the largest metaverse project to date, for which they have raised $1B in funding.

8. Splitgate

5-year search growth: 0%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2016

Location: Zephyr Cove, Nevada 

Funding: $116.5M (Series Unknown) 

What they do: Splitgate specializes in designing first-person shooters. Heavily influenced by Halo, the Stanford-educated founders created Splitgate. It’s a multiplayer game that adds a new layer to the FPS genre by introducing portals. The Splitgate game recently launched for free on July 27th, 2021. 

9. Chaos Karts

5-year search growth: 3,100%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2019

Location: London, England

Funding: $765K (Seed)

What they doChaos Karts takes on a different angle on the video game industry by offering people a complete augmented reality (AR) experience in the form of a kart game. Seeing as how AR is poised to become “the next level” in the gaming industry, Chaos Karts makes it easy for interested players to play. Users can simply go to the company facility in London, where they are placed into an AR set that allows them to play the game. The startup’s seed round was invested at a valuation of $3.53M.

10. Wildlife Studios

5-year search growth: 2,000%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2011

Location: São Paulo, Brazil

Funding: $260M (Secondary Market)

What they do: With over 700 employees and over 60 games in their portfolio, the Brazilian gaming heavyweight Wildlife Studios has become one of the 10 largest mobile gaming companies in the world.

Wildlife’s games have wracked up 3 billion downloads to date.

11. Twin Suns

5-year search growth: 0%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2020

Location: Seattle, Washington

Funding: $3.9M (Seed)

What they doTwin Suns, although founded less than a year ago, has already made a significant impact in the industry. The startup has assembled an all-star team that will work together to regularly release triple-A-rated titles. Halo’s former creative director, Hitman’s executive producer, and a former Gears of War developer are some of the industry veterans leading the new venture.

12. Immersive Gamebox

5-year search growth: 3,000%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2018

Location: London, England

Funding: $45.5M (Venture Debt)

What they do: Immersive Gamebox is an entertainment and live-action gaming company that gives customers access to an interactive smart room. In these digital smart rooms, teams in adventure games together. Some of their top games include Tetris 1991, Squid Game, and Angry Birds. The startup has over 24,500 5-star customer reviews on Google, Yelp, and TripAdvisor.

13. Gameway

5-year search growth: 233%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2018

Location: Tigard, Oregon

Funding: $1.3M (Seed)

What they doGameway aims to install entertainment hubs in airports across the US. Specifically, they operate video game lounges where travelers can play games on multiple consoles. So far, the startup has managed to open its centers in 2 different terminals at the Dallas Fort Worth airport.

14. Mino Games

5-year search growth: 67%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2011

Location: Montreal, Canada

Funding: $49.9M (Series B)

What they do: Mino Games is a mobile game studio that creates engaging and visually stunning games with a focus on social play. Their games have been downloaded millions of times and have received critical acclaim for their high-quality graphics, addictive gameplay, and innovative social features. With a team of talented developers and a passion for creating fun and entertaining games, Mino Games is quickly establishing itself as a leading player in the mobile gaming industry.

15. MyDearest

5-year search growth: 200%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2016

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Funding: $1.7M (Equity Crowdfunding)

What they doMyDearest is a video game development studio. Sounds like any other video game company, right? Well, MyDearest’s competitive advantage is that it exclusively develops VR games. Although VR gaming is significantly smaller than traditional gaming, it still has an impressive market size of $11.56B.

16. Voldex

5-year search growth: 800%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2015

Location: Montreal, Canada

Funding: $3M (Series A)

What they do: Voldex is a metaverse gaming platform that aims to provide a wide variety of games to it's users. The company offers unique gaming concepts and frameworks that can be translated into reality. They currently have over 14 million monthly active users and over 2 billion cumulative plays.

17. PowerZ

5-year search growth: 143%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2020

Location: Paris, France

Funding: $10.5M (Series Unknown)

What they doPowerZ wants to empower students by improving their learning process. The startup has built a video game designed to teach students math, language and critical thinking skills. According to PowerZ, the game is ideally suited to children of ages 6 through 12.

18. Rec Room

5-year search growth: 780%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2016

Location: Seattle, Washington

Funding: $294M (Series Unknown)

What they do: Rec Room is a virtual reality gaming platform that allows users to create their own virtual reality spaces and games using its user-friendly tools. Users can socialize with others in virtual reality environments such as virtual clubs and sports games. With its cross-platform capability, users can connect and play with others on various devices including VR headsets, PC, and mobile devices.

19. One Earth Rising

5-year search growth: 93%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2019

Location: New York, New York

Funding: $1.4M (Pre-Seed)

What they doOne Earth Rising creates games designed to have a positive social impact. These games are built around social themes such as climate change, well-being and ocean preservation. This allows players to learn about these topics while still having fun playing the game. One Earth Rising has already released their early access game on the PlayStation platform. And after its success, the startup is now looking to release it on the Xbox platform.

20. Rogue Games

5-year search growth: 92%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2018

Location: Los Angeles, California

Funding: $5.8M (Series A)

What they doRogue Games builds and publishes their own games. So far, the startup has released 18 titles, with Swordcar being their most successful one. According to Rogue Games, their $2.5M Series A funding will be used to develop “crazy games.”

21. Umami Games

5-year search growth: 0%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2019

Location: Frederiksberg, Denmark

Funding: $530K (Seed)

What they doUmami Games has implemented a system that uses data to decide which games they’ll develop. The startup has also installed a very efficient testing system to test a prototype within 14 days. This enables Umami Games to produce up to 4 games every month.

22. Itatake

5-year search growth: 7,400%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2011

Location: Gothenburg, Sweden

Funding: Undisclosed

What they doItatake publishes casual, mobile games. In addition to game development, the startup also organizes tournaments and leagues for the games they build. To date, Itatake has created 8 games that bring in an estimated $2.1M in yearly revenue.

23. Piffle

5-year search growth: -38%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2021

Location: San Francisco, California 

Funding: Undisclosed

What they do: Piffle is a social gaming platform intended to offer games for work teams. According to the startup, these video games help increase team collaboration and efficiency. Piffle made mediatic waves when it was disclosed that it joined the Google for Startups accelerator. 

24. Candivore

5-year search growth: 600%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2017

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Funding: $122M (Private Equity)

What they doCandivore builds PVP-based puzzle games designed for mobile gaming. Their matchmaking system pushes players to bring out their A-game to the table in an effort to earn in-game awards. The VGames-backed startup raised its Series D round at a valuation of $93.84M.

25. Manticore Games

5-year search growth: 200%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2016

Location: San Mateo, California

Funding: $160.8M (Series C)

What they doManticore Games is the developer and operator of Core, which is described as a digital playground. Branded as the “portal to the multiverse,” Core is powered by the Unreal Engine and contains what seems to be an endless number of games spanning from FPSs to MMORPGs and everything in between.

26. Metatheory

5-year search growth: -33%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2021

Location: San Francisco, California

Funding: $24M (Series A)

What they do: Led by a team of creators and engineers from Twitch, On Point Creative, and others, Metatheory has zoomed in on Web3 as the fertile land to plant their next seeds for game creation.

Their first game is DuskBreakers, which ties in NFTs with an expansive sci-fi world for players to explore.

27. Mainframe Industries

5-year search growth: 150%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2019

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Funding: $28.4M (Series B)

What they do: Mainframe Industries is a Helsinki-based gaming technology startup that creates collaborative, cloud-native game development tools that enable game developers to build, launch, and scale games efficiently. Their platform, The Mainframe, provides an innovative approach to game development, utilizing cloud technology to enable remote collaboration and real-time iteration, reducing costs and accelerating time to market. Mainframe Industries aims to democratize game development, making it accessible to everyone regardless of location, resources, or expertise.

28. Soulbound

5-year search growth: 96%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2015

Location: Bellevue, Washington

Funding: $3.6M (Seed)

What they do: Many in the gaming community believe that digital ownership of items is going to be an important gaming trend in the near future.

Soulbound is building a comprehensive gamer reputation platform that functions across games, balances item ownership and governance, and allows a player to have one profile across the metaverse.

29. IMU Studios

5-year search growth: 4,900%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2020

Location: Nelson, British Columbia

Funding: Undisclosed

What they do: Game designer IMU Studios started their first project back in 2005 but were halted by the financial crisis in 2008. They’ve developed THUNDER!, their marquee game built with Unreal Engine technology.

Similar to other popular gaming concepts getting traction right now, THUNDER! gameplay revolves around their proprietary Game Gear system. Players can loan out in-game items for money, trade on an open marketplace, and level up their gear.

30. Dapper Labs

5-year search growth: 300%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2018

Location: Vancouver, British Columbia

Funding: $917.5M (Series Unknown)

What they do: Dapper Labs has exploded in notoriety in parallel to the emergent crypto gaming ecosystem. Top games built by Dapper include the NBA’s Top Shot trading card game, UFC’s Strike, CryptoKitties, and other blue chip NFT projects.

At the end of 2021, Dapper Labs was valued at more than $7B. Within 8 months of NBA Top Shot’s launch, the NBA project hit over 1M users and $700M in revenue.

Dapper was named by Fast Company as the Most Innovative Gaming Company of 2022.

31. Overgear

5-year search growth: 617%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2016

Location: Nicosia, Cyprus

Funding: Bootstrapped

What they do: Overgear is an online gaming platform where players can trade items in top-rated Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). According to Michael Koltinov, the company's COO, Overgear has more than 1.5+ million active users. 

32. One More Multiverse

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5-year search growth: 1,100%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2019

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Funding: $17.7M (Series A)

What they doOne More Multiverse believes it is revolutionizing the tabletop gaming space. The startup has built an interactive platform that allows players to make their own games as well as play already-built games. The platform recently launched for the public in mid-2022.

33. Inworld AI

5-year search growth: 2,800%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2021

Location: Mountain View, California

Funding: $125.7M (Series Unknown)

What they doInworld AI develops AI NPCs that mimic human behaviors for online games. The Inworld Character Engine builds these characters using artificial intelligence and advanced language learning models. As of today, Inworld AI has raised over $125 million after receiving backing from Disney in August 2022.

34. Omeda Studios

5-year search growth: 70%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2020

Location: London, United Kingdom

Funding: $22.2M (Series A)

What they do: MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games have soared in popularity since Fortnite, with total revenue exceeding $300M monthly. Omeda Studios has been building Predecessor, a MOBA competitor to mainstays like Valve’s DOTA and Fortnite.

35. Overwolf

5-year search growth: 580%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2010

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel 

Funding: $97.2M (Series D) 

What they do: Overwolf is a platform that provides software developers with tools to build, distribute and monetize in-game apps and mods. With a growing community of over 30,000 developers, Overwolf's technology allows for easy integration with games, and provides developers with access to data and resources that enable them to create a wide range of gaming apps. These apps can range from simple overlays displaying real-time game information to advanced mods that fundamentally change the gameplay experience.

36. GameFi

5-year search growth: 2,100%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2013

Location: Madison, Wisconsin 

Funding: Undisclosed

What they do: GameFi is a subgenre of decentralized finance (DeFi) that combines blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and gaming. In GameFi, users can earn tokens by playing games or performing other activities within a gaming ecosystem. These tokens can be used to buy in-game items or exchanged for other cryptocurrencies.

37. Mindfuture

5-year search growth: 33%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2018

Location: London, United Kingdom

Funding: Undisclosed

What they do: Mindfuture is a marketing agency focused solely on esports and gaming. By creating high quality campaigns and connecting leading brands to top esports teams and streamers, Mindfuture has been able to create new opportunities and awareness for brands that want a new angle.

HyperX, Huel, Coca-Cola, and other global brands have all used Mindfuture to connect with gamers.

38. HYPOTHETIC

5-year search growth: 20%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2021

Location: Los Angeles, California

Funding: $4.5M (Debt Financing)

What they do: HYPOTHETIC is a new startup composed of artists, scientists, and engineers that are aiming to use generative AI to achieve the next generation of 3D graphics for gaming, along with powerful machine learning algorithms.

HYPOTHETIC’s team contains leading neural network, computer science, and machine learning researchers.

39. inSTREAMLY

5-year search growth: 4,033%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2018

Location: Warsaw, Poland

Funding: $1.6M (Seed)

What they do: inStreamly’s business model is simple. Connect the exploding world of gaming streamers to brands looking to advertise. Over 78K streamers are currently partnered with inStreamly, generating over 600 campaigns for 173 brands.

Even more interesting is the fact that streamers that are just getting started can sign “micro sponsorships” to start earning profit from the beginning. inStreamly claims that over 200K have been signed so far.

40. Powder.gg

5-year search growth: 160%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2022

Location: Paris, France

Funding: $20.1M (Grant)

What they do: France’s gaming startup Powder integrates games and lets users automatically save highlights. Powered by proprietary AI technology, Powder saves game clips from popular games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Call of Duty and more.

Quests are also integrated into these leading titles, allowing players to earn rewards like badges and other unique items.

41. Megarama Games

5-year search growth: 180%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2015

Location: Tel Aviv, Israel

Funding: Undisclosed

What they do: Founded by a former doctor and a cybersecurity expert, Megarama is a leading developer of mobile casino games on both the App Store and Google Play. Games focus on the niche casino slot games, with a variety of different themes and formats.

The Megarama team is fully remote across Asia and Europe.

42. Move.ai

5-year search growth: 900%

Search growth status: Regular

Year founded: 2019

Location: London, United Kingdom

Funding: $9.9M (Seed)

What they do: Move.ai captures high fidelity motion in the real world and ports the same movements into animation in the metaverse.

With applications across gaming, film, movies, and more, Move has been supported by investors including Warner Music Group, Nvidia, and other impressive names in gaming and entertainment.

43. Trak Racer

5-year search growth: 2,833%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2007

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Funding: Bootstrapped

What they do: Trak Racer is a gaming company that builds racing simulators and gaming accessories. These simulators are realistic and used by the Alpine F1 Team and Alpine Academy professional drivers. Some of their top products include the TR160, TR8, TR8 PRO, TR80, and TR80 LITE racing simulators and the Flight Sim.

44. GEEIQ

5-year search growth: 0%

Search growth status: Peaked

Year founded: 2018

Location: London, United Kingdom

Funding: $8.2M (Series A)

What they do: GEEIQ’s SaaS platform connects leading brands like Kia, H&M, Porsche, Gucci and more, with leading esports teams and gaming culture, and the metaverse as a whole.

Brands can use the platform to track campaign data in real time, check social media followings, and get detailed analytics around a streamer’s viewership.

45. Elixir Games

5-year search growth: 240%

Search growth status: Exploding

Year founded: 2018

Location: Delaware

Funding: Undisclosed

What they do: Elixir is similar to the massively popular gaming platform Steam, but focuses entirely on blockchain and Web 3 games. Users can download the app on iOS or Windows, and instantly launch a variety of games across genres.

Conclusion

This concludes our list of fast-growing gaming startups.

As our list demonstrates, even relatively small companies in this industry are designing, developing and publishing games enjoyed by millions of people worldwide.

As the industry evolves, so do these companies. And we can see that developers are already adapting to new trends by incorporating social-impact features, VR and AR technologies, and the metaverse into their gaming experiences.