We continue to summarize the results of 2019 together with the heads of gaming companies and market experts. Next up is an interview with Evgeny Polotnyanko, the head of the Odnoklassniki social network gaming platform.
Evgeny PolotnyankoHow was 2019 for the company?
For OK, the year was excellent in all directions. OK games continue to grow, primarily thanks to our mobile platform. In the first six months, we paid game studios and independent mobile game developers twice as much as a year ago. The audience of mobile games grew with approximately the same dynamics.
In 2019, we managed to update several records both for the daily revenue of the entire platform and for individual applications. It is important that new games continue to come to us actively. Several mobile developers have once again confirmed that you can come to our platform with a new game and get millions of dollars in revenue in a month.
In OK, where users actively share emotions with family and friends, the social mechanics of games (reposts, invitations, competitiveness) make them especially successful. Every year we manage to attract more and more projects, now 
1500 developers are registered on the platform.
What events in the regional and global gaming industry do you consider central in the past year?
I am definitely happy for the guys from Playrix, this year they managed to enter the top three largest mobile gaming companies in the world in terms of revenue.
Belarusians were also pleased: thanks to the genre of hyper-casual games that continues to gain momentum, SayGames were able to lead the world top in mobile game downloads.
Developers of hyper-casual games are also showing interest in our mobile platform: thanks to the development of advertising monetization opportunities, the share of games’ revenue in OK from advertising continues to grow. I wouldn’t be surprised if games with purely advertising monetization appear on our platform soon.
What are the main trends in the market today?
In my opinion, the story of investing in gaming teams is actively developing now. Increasingly, we hear success stories in which startups either attract investment or become part of larger companies. This gives small gaming companies the opportunity to enter new markets, develop their product, better explore the audience and understand its needs.
Which third-party game releases this year, in your opinion, were the most important? Which games did you spend the most time on in 2019 as a gamer?
For me, the most important releases are those that have caused discussions in the gaming community. In my opinion, this is Death Stranding, which has become the discovery of the Japanese gaming industry for the younger generation of gamers from all over the world. It is the most significant because it illustrates the phenomenon when a game becomes a work of art. Thanks to this game meme “Kojima is a genius!” survived another birth!
Surprisingly, as a gamer, I paid the most attention to Clash Royale this year. Although the game has been around for several years, thanks to regular updates, the game continues to hold my interest.