State support helps Turkey’s gaming sector to win big

• Turkish government incentives
• Downloads exceed three billion
• Global top 10 player

Turkey’s game design sector is scoring big both in terms of international appeal and investment, riding on a rising tide of downloads and funding. 

In mid-June, Istanbul-based studio Bigger Games announced it had raised $25 million in Series A funding, gaining backing from Goldwater Capital and other gaming investors attracted by the company’s recent success, having posted more than 110 million downloads of its current titles.

Announcing the funding round, Bigger Games said it intended to use the money to expand its staffing levels and scale up its lead product, the mobile game Kitchen Masters, which combines travel and challenges with a culinary twist. 

The designer was just the latest Turkish games producer to hit the funding jackpot, with more than $90 million raised by companies in the segment so far this year, either through sales or strategic investments. 

Among the big ticket winners were Istanbul’s Grand Games, which raised $30 million through a Series A round; Good Job Games with an investment round that attracted $23 million and Fuse Games with $7 million. 

This funding is going into a sector that has managed a strong track record of success in a relatively short period of time.

According to mobile app analysis company 42matters, the top 10 Turkish game developers have combined for more than 3 billion downloads of their products. 

There are a number of factors contributing to the gaming segment’s rapid development, Özgür Karayalçin, vice chair of the Game Developers Association of Turkey, told AGBI.

“The increased ease of entering the market via the mobile sector, state incentives, youth moving into the industry and investment inflows are combining to create success, each feeding into the other,” he said. 

The incentives benefitting the sector introduced by the state include providing tax holidays, reduced costs of registering a company, dedicated workspaces, deductions in social security payments for staff and reductions in utilities outlays to encourage growth in the tech industry. 

These incentives are part of a wider support package being rolled out by the government to bolster the tech industry, with the HIT-30 programme launched in July 2024 intended to make the country a high-tech industrial hub by 2030. 

Helped along by the positive environment, Turkey’s gaming sector is set for sustained success and growth over the coming two years and beyond, said Karayalçin, attracting increased investment streams. 

“Globally, in the game developing sector Turkey is among the top 10, something not seen in any other sectors,” he said. 

“Studies and reports on the sector show Turkey is among the countries with the potential to grow.”