Sometimes, the best way to unwind after a long day is by playing a quick, stress-relieving game on your phone. Some of these games come in the form of wordplay, while others let you put puzzles together and solve mysteries.

If you’re someone who hasn’t come across a quality casual game in a while, let us introduce you to Fugo Games. Fugo Games is a casual-game developer company led by Deniz Mert Edincik and Erol Nahmias. It is proof that great things happen when brilliant minds get together!

Founded in Turkey in 2010, Fugo bends the rules and revamps the mobile game industry, one step at a time.

Curious about Fugo’s early roots and Deniz and Erol’s rise to fame? Let’s dive in.

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Founders’ Early Years

Deniz had a modest childhood growing up, which gave him motivation to aim for the stars from a very young age. He graduated from Yildiz Technical University with a Bachelor in Mathematics Engineering in 2002 and started working the following year.

Deniz’s first professional experience was with NokiaGame–a game-developer company that focused on mobile games compatible with Nokia. After gaining some valuable experience as a Security Specialist, he left after a year and moved on to his next venture.

From November 2004 until July 2005, Deniz worked as a Lead Developer for Tikle UA. He performed flawlessly and eventually started working on the company’s SMS services and the development of VAS portals.

After leaving Tikle, Deniz became a Mobile Services Consultant at Pharos Mobile and created several mobile-friendly websites and apps for big-name clients. In the midst of this, he founded Fugo games together with Erol.

Erol also had a humble beginning in his academic and professional life, which inspired him to major in Science and Computer Engineering. Interestingly enough, he started working the same year he enrolled in college. His first professional experience was in 1994 when he became an IT Manager at SMS Sales and Marketing Services.

After tirelessly managing the IT department for 4 years, Erol got a job as a Technical Manager at Tickle, where he met Deniz. He spent 9 years with the company before bringing to life his shared idea with Deniz–Fugo Games.

All About Fugo Games

Fugo Games is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, and was founded in 2010 by Deniz and Erol. Software development is the primary field Fugo focuses on, meaning it creates all its games from scratch–back-end stuff included.

The extensive team at Fugo Games comprises game artists, tech leads, software developers, marketing associates, and growth specialists. The first game they created was Wordz–a casual word game that has since accumulated international success with over 7 million downloads in 35 languages.

Fugo Games’ Top-Rated Apps

If you’ve never heard of Fugo Games, you might be familiar and even played the company’s biggest success to date–Words of Wonders: Crossword. The app is available on iOS and Android, as are all other games in Fugo’s portfolio.

Words of Wonders: Crossword gained such immense traction that it eventually reached 100 million downloads on Google Play and was deemed the number two top free word app for Android. It’s also available for iPad and lets you test your vocab skills like no other app!

Solitaire Sunday is another record-breaking title from Fugo that fuses classic solitaire with additional, one-of-a-kind features. It has 100,000+ downloads on Google Play with solid ratings for both Android and iOS.

Fugo Games Milestones

According to statistics, Fugo Games is among the top 10 Turkish mobile game publishers. So far, Fugo’s library consists of less than 10 games that have all gained popularity on iOS and Android.

Together, the number of downloads surpasses hundreds of millions. Seeing that a very small percentage of Turkish game developers have made it big globally, this is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of success.

Fugo Games also finds itself on multiple lists, such as iOS Companies With Fewer Than 1,000 Employees, Gaming Companies With Fewer Than 50 Employees, and Turkey Companies.

How Did Fugo Rise Its Games to Popularity?

Today, Fugo Games creates and delivers games in 35+ languages, allowing communication between millions of individuals around the world. Their famous word game, Words of Wonders: Crossword, is, as of now, being played in 150+ nations.

The Marketing Manager at Fugo, Egemen Güven, explains how he, with his team, increased the number of downloads by 20 times on Quality's accessible arrangements across 12 GEOs for their game Words of Wonders: Crossword.

Basically, there was a growing interest in the game, and the Fugo team was looking to infiltrate new markets. So they started investigating new user acquisition channels.

At that time, the team was already using the ironSource Aura channel for user acquisition. Considering and evaluating deeply, the team decided to try different methods concerning its advertising strategy.

In the end, ironSource Aura proved the most successful and managed to deliver rich gameplay to Fugo’s players. It was enough to retain existing customers and pull in some more. The platform also helped the team optimize its games for the utmost user experience, aiding its existing advertising strategy.

Fugo Games Funding

Fugo’s players and investors looking for new opportunities have been wondering when the platform will go public. Unfortunately, we don’t see that happening any time soon.

Fugo Games remains a private company and has never had a funding round before. All funding comes from the inside, so it’s awe-inspiring that the company has managed to stay afloat through all financial climates for years now.

Hopefully, we’ll see a funding round sometime in the future. However, no word on this has been said by any member of the Fugo team.

Projections for the Future

According to research, China, India, the US, Indonesia, and Brazil count the most mobile-game players annually. In fact, there are more than 865 million users in China alone, followed by India, at above 606 million!

As you can see, the mobile game industry has been highly prosperous lately, which means saturation is increasing.

To keep up with the demand, Fugo Games will be focusing on gaining more traction on both iOS and Android. With the advent of 5G technology and IoT, Fugo Games expects above 30 percent growth on an annual basis.

Within these developments, the company is trying to develop the game portfolio even further and reach players who love online games around the world. Words of Wonders: Crosswords is expected to reach 320 million registered players next year. More than 550,000 people play Word Hunt in their language every day!

At peak times, approximately 25,000 players compete online at the same time, and this number continues to increase day by day. Finland, Netherlands, Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary, Russia, Malaysia, Greece, Germany, and France are among the countries that play Fugo’s games the most.

Fugo Games is working hard to ensure its games are played all over the world and gain continuity. It aims to increase the language selection from 30+ today to 45+ in a very short time.

Final Words

Since its founding in 2010, Fugo Games has become a staple in the mobile gaming community. Its games have become evergreen and gain millions of new players yearly.

Thanks to the impressive collaboration between Deniz and Erol, Fugo Games has become one of the top mobile game creators in Turkey and worldwide. Its games are downloaded all over the world and connect logophiles across multiple continents!

So, if you ever find yourself in a state of immense boredom, don’t forget–Fugo’s games await you!