“Understanding that our games bring people together is incredibly inspiring,” says Diana Weng from MYTONA about the results of 2024

What kind of year was it for the company? What achievements would you like to highlight?

The year 2024 was a year of transformation for our team. Recent years have been challenging, particularly working with a large distributed team, which required us to develop effective remote work processes. We focused on improving processes in both development and management, increased transparency, and updated the company’s mission and values. Special attention was given to our internal cultural code — MYTONA Code, which has become the foundation for further growth and achieving our goals. Speaking about achievements, I will first highlight the successes of our projects. Last year, our iconic XO project Seekers Notes turned nine years old and continues to rank in the top three in its genre in terms of revenue, which is a significant success in the mobile gaming market. This year, Seekers Notes was named "Game of the Day" in the App Store in nearly 100 countries, for which we are especially grateful to our partners at Apple.

Seekers Notes

Cooking Diary, which turned six years old, also consistently ranks in the top three games of its genre and rightfully sets trends in its direction. However, in recent years, the game faced some challenges with declining revenues, and the team worked extensively on restoring key performance indicators. In 2023, we identified the reasons for such behavior and made the necessary adjustments to the game. As a result, in 2024, we transitioned into a phase of gradual growth and actively sought new ways to develop the project. For instance, this spring, the game launched its own webshop with unique offers and customization options, whose share of revenue doubled during this time. Additionally, this fall, the team reduced loading times by 21.6% on iOS and 42.4% on GP, making the game more optimized and accessible.

Cooking Diary

We celebrated the anniversaries of both projects with a collaboration with YouTube Premium, gifting our players exclusive free promo codes. This summer, our new game Chef & Friends, also a time-management game, reached the required metrics during soft launch and became a candidate for global release. The project shows excellent results in early and long-term retention. The game’s current ROAS 30d > 40%. We are now actively working on improving the LTV curve.

Chef & Friends

However, despite a successful start at the beginning of 2024, we faced a challenge in further project profitability after day 90. We saw the solution in increasing content volume and working on balance. The hypothesis was correct. By mid-year, we resolved the issue. Consequently, players started to note that the game became more engaging, and we observed growth in monetization metrics. Now, we are focusing heavily on creating diverse events and enhancing social interaction among players to make the game even more captivating for our audience. Chef & Friends is a very ambitious project. Even at the soft launch stage, it has already gathered millions of fans worldwide, and we are confident that it will achieve even more impressive accomplishments ahead. Our top-down shooter Outfire, which has been in soft launch for a long time, also showcased impressive results last year. For our company, this game truly became a long-term project: it has been relaunched and reworked multiple times over the years, but we believed in it, and the development team persevered, improving the game with each iteration.

Outfire

In 2024, we set a deadline for the game — we planned to shut it down by mid-year if it did not show results. However, unexpectedly, as the deadline approached, the project began to demonstrate excellent results: the game achieved a record increase in day-one retention — 60%, day-30 retention became comparable to our casual projects, and the early ROAS was the highest among all our projects. This is particularly significant, considering the game is not hyper-casual, and this result was achieved through in-game purchases. It turns out that all the work we put in over the years finally paid off and showed results. These metrics give us the confidence that once we further refine the game, it can achieve similar results in subsequent days (d30, d60, and beyond), and we will be ready to scale marketing budgets. Today's challenge for the game is the insufficient number of heroes, events, and modes, as well as the limited amount of content for paying players. These issues remain priorities, and we will be actively addressing them, focusing on developing these aspects. Additionally, we have several projects in soft launch and development, which we hope to share with you in the near future. Also, speaking of achievements, I would like to talk a little about our offices. Today, we have offices in seven countries around the world. When it comes to our main geographies, they are currently New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, and Kazakhstan. This year, our headquarters in New Zealand was a finalist in the national Best Places to Work 2024 award. Thailand is a rapidly developing country with very dynamic energy, and we have a large team there — around 200 people. This year, we opened an office in Bangkok — in the tallest and most modern business center of the capital, One City Centre. Thanks to its convenient location, Thailand has become the main hub for our offline meetings and quarterly gatherings. We pay special attention to our office in Kazakhstan, where many of our experienced developers are based. We actively collaborate with Astana Hub, participate in their events, share expertise, and support the development of the local industry. This year, the team from Kazakhstan helped equip game development classes in several regions and became a sponsor of the international accelerator B8. Currently, we have organized an art contest together to celebrate the professional holidays of 2D and 3D artists, as well as Kazakhstan’s Independence Day, to support local talent. Our distributed team continues to grow each year and is now spread across 30 countries worldwide. During this time, we have gathered significant experience and expertise in managing a global team and are working to further enhance the efficiency of our work. Personal, professional, and team development is a core value at MYTONA. We launched the Growth Journey 2024 educational program, implemented the Wellbeing bonus program and the Billion Steps challenge, the proceeds of which will be directed to charity. We also introduced the Eco Challenge initiative: the team from Thailand cleaned beaches in Phuket, employees from Kazakhstan helped those affected by flooding, and the team from New Zealand supported a farm for rare birds — kiwis. Today, the majority of our employees are at the Senior level. We are proud of the professionalism and achievements of our team. Experienced employees continue to hone their skills, while new MYTONA members bring fresh perspectives and energy. We are confident that with such a powerful team, even more opportunities and achievements await us in the coming year.

Seekers Notes

How has the situation in the gaming market changed, in your opinion?

The mobile gaming market continues to grow steadily, but very few new hits are emerging; the growth is mainly driven by existing hits. At the same time, global competition for screen time is intensifying, where mobile games compete not only with each other but also with social networks, streaming services, and other forms of digital leisure. It is worth noting the growing popularity of games with a social component. Cooperative and competitive formats, as well as the ability to build communities within games, are becoming increasingly in demand.

Cooking Diary

What kind of year was it for the genre in which you work?

This year was successful for the free-to-play mobile game industry. We see that the market returned to its usual growth pace, allowing developers to focus on audience engagement. In 2024, we decided to focus on deeply exploring our niche and creating games that become leaders in their genre. This approach reflects our commitment to "listening" to the audience and considering their needs. We take pride in our support team, which helps and unites players. One of the standout stories comes from Cooking Diary, where two players met each other, connected in real life, and got married. Knowing that our projects not only entertain but also create worlds that bring people together inspires us to continue working and developing.

Outfire

What strengthening or emergence of trends do you expect in your niche in 2025?

In 2025, we anticipate the strengthening of trends such as the development of webshops and the diversification of channels. The growth of mobile game revenues will continue thanks to new monetization models, such as subscriptions and direct sales, which are becoming an important part of developers' strategies. Additionally, players increasingly value transparent and genuine advertising content, which makes an honest approach in marketing especially relevant.

Seekers Notes

What are the company's plans for the next year?

Speaking of our teams, we see growth opportunities in increasing work efficiency, improving work processes, and enhancing working conditions. We will continue to work on these aspects, striving to create even more comfortable conditions for employees, as well as increasing their overall engagement and productivity. Regarding games, we definitely plan to continue developing our key projects and strengthening new titles. One of the most significant events of the upcoming year will be the tenth anniversary of Seekers Notes! We plan to organize something special for our beloved players. It's too early to reveal details, but we're sure it will be an unforgettable celebration for our seekers. Stay tuned for updates! Our flagship project, Cooking Diary, will continue to develop steadily. It has long since become more than just a game; it’s a kind of culinary universe. We will keep expanding and enriching the game, making Cooking Diary even more unique. As I mentioned before, Chef & Friends made significant improvements in 2024. We see that the game is ready for a global release. We have set an ambitious goal for the project — to bring it into the top 100 grossing games. Starting in early 2025, we will focus on developing the core mechanics of the game, adding events, and increasing advertising activity. Outfire also delivered excellent results in 2024, so we will steer it toward a global release. The game has every chance to become a hit in its genre. We will actively add new content and then boost its promotion. Our goal for 2025 is to bring Chef & Friends and Outfire to the same top positions as Seekers Notes and Cooking Diary. Download and play our games, and join our warm MYTONA player community! Happy holidays!

Chef & Friends