Founded in Amsterdam in 2014 and entirely self-funded, Poki has grown into the world’s largest web gaming platform, reaching 100 million monthly players and recording 1 billion gameplays in a single month in 2025. But the more interesting story for Europe’s indie developer community is not the scale, but how the platform got there.
Unlike app stores or traditional publishers, Poki operates as an active partner in a game’s development rather than a passive distribution channel. The company works directly with over 600 developers across more than 1,500 curated titles and releases only one game per day, a deliberate constraint that keeps quality high and competition manageable for smaller studios. On the App Store or Google Play, discoverability is largely a function of marketing budget. On Poki, a solo developer competes on the same terms as a larger studio, with the platform’s algorithm prioritising average play time and conversion to play over acquisition spend.
Poki’s monetisation model is entirely ad-based, removing the barrier of payment integration for developers. Revenue is shared directly and, according to the company, even moderate performers generate stable monthly income. For developers coming from mobile, where user acquisition costs have squeezed out smaller teams, the contrast is stark: there is no UA spend, and distribution is included.
Romy Halfweeg, Business Development Manager at Poki, describes the model as a long-term partnership rather than a content deal. “We sign a developer more so than a game,” Halfweeg said in a recent interview with Next Big Games. “The first game is usually not a breakout success. The second will be better, the third might be a huge success.”
Playtesting before commitment
One of the more practical tools Poki offers is free access to its playtesting infrastructure before any agreement is signed. Through developers.poki.com, studios can upload a prototype and have it surfaced to real players, receiving session-length data, drop-off points, and screen recordings of actual players navigating their onboarding, with no obligation to publish with Poki. One developer using the tool improved their average session length from three minutes 49 seconds to seven minutes five seconds in just four days through iterative changes informed by the data.
For European indie developers, the web offers a route to global distribution without the capital requirements of mobile or console: no app store fees, no unpredictable approval timelines, and no marketing budget needed for initial visibility. Poki’s combination of a free playtesting tool, a revenue-sharing model, and a long-term partnership philosophy makes it one of the more developer-friendly platforms available to small studios looking for a sustainable path to revenue without giving up equity or taking on a publisher.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/04/how-amsterdam-based-poki-is-becoming-one-of-the-best-launchpads-for-indie-game-developers-in-europe-sponsored/
