Turkish NBL prepares to expand to US with debut game
NBL Games, a new player in the Turkish gaming sector, one of the most dynamic areas of Türkiye’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, has surpassed a size of $1.5 billion and has made a swift entry into the market.
The company’s first game, “Quiz Crush,” focusing on artificial intelligence-powered multiplayer social trivia and word games, has begun to excite gamers, quickly climbing the ranks in the Turkish gaming market.
Bringing new excitement to the dynamic gaming sector, NBL Games has completed its first investment round with a valuation of TL 150 million ($4.79 million). The seed investment round was supported by investors such as Heaventures, along with Abidin Gülmüş, Nedim Özkan, Tolga Camadan, Kerim Dumanlı, Savaş Keleş and Cengiz Zabcı.
Aimed at expanding both domestically and internationally, NBL Games is now gearing up to enter the U.S. market.
Some 3.3 billion people worldwide are estimated to play digital games. While global revenues from digital games reached $184 billion in 2023, it is predicted to rise to $205 billion by 2026. Mobile games account for the largest share of this pie, with 49%.
Quiz Crush, where users compete fiercely in 10 different categories ranging from general knowledge to football, cinema, science and technology against other players in real-time, is already making strides toward gaining a devoted community with its fresh take on trivia games.
Players can form their own friend groups and engage in in-game messaging while participating in exciting trivia battles.
NBL Games emerged from the collaboration of Emre Ulusoy and Gökhan Örün, the names behind Türkiye’s fastest-growing and widely followed 11-time award-winning “Hadi” application, along with Erdem Yurdanur, Ömer Kırkağaclıoğlu and the Kokteyl team, who achieved great success with “Maçkolik,” “Ofsayt” and “Kafatopu” games.
“We aim to offer our players not only fun but also mentally challenging, socially interactive and innovative games,” said Yurdanur, evaluating the road map of NBL Games established in 2023.
For his part, Ulusoy said Quiz Crush is just the beginning.
“Throughout our journey, we aim to provide gamers with experiences that will be firsts in the world,” he noted.
JOINING UNICORN’S CLUB
While the number of gamers worldwide exceeds 3 billion, it is estimated that there are 36 million active gamers in Türkiye. Startups developing games in Türkiye received $672.5 million in investments in the last five years.
In 2023, the number of investments in gaming startups increased by over 50% compared to the previous year.
When evaluated across Europe, Türkiye ranks fifth in investment volume in gaming startups, after the U.K., France, Switzerland and Sweden and ranks first in the number of investments.
The medium- and long-term goal of NBL Games is to become one of the unicorns emerging from the Turkish gaming market.