Browser gaming website Poki won Best in Business at the Dutch Game Awards in December 2025, and the numbers behind the recognition tell a clear story: when you prioritise game creators, everyone wins. The Amsterdam-based gaming platform now serves 100 million monthly players worldwide, hitting 1 billion plays per month in June 2025: a milestone directly fueled by the success of over 600 independent studios in its ecosystem.
The award recognises five years of sustained growth that transformed Poki from a 10-million-player operation into the global market leader in browser-based gaming. More importantly, it validates a creator-first model that has increased top developer revenues tenfold. Studios that earned $50,000 annually five years ago now pull in up to $1 million per year, according to data from the Dutch Games Association’s 2024 report.
Developer success drives quality content
Poki’s 1,000-plus curated games come from a thriving creator community that spans from solo developers to established indie studios. This developer ecosystem is the engine behind the billion-play milestone. When studios earn sustainable income, they build better games that attract casual gamers and action fans alike.
The revenue model works through strategic partnerships where Poki provides full-service support, including quality assurance, user interface optimisation, and marketing resources. Creators maintain web exclusivity with the browser gaming website while retaining freedom to publish on Steam or mobile app stores. The arrangement has proven successful enough to scale the business from 50 to 65 full-time employees in just the past year, reflecting the kind of operational expansion happening across successful gaming startups.
When players discover games through bookmarks, search engines, social media, or direct community links, developers receive 100% of the revenue from those users. This encourages creators to put out high-quality thumbnails that help them get discovered while paying attention to the quality of their games.
Real studio growth in the web gaming space
The web gaming space has a lot of competitors, but quality is always better than quantity. Take Emolingo Games as an example. The Turkish indie studio started as a two-person team and has grown to five full-time employees entirely through Poki revenue. Their game Rainbow Obby has exceeded 100 million plays, and the studio averages 800,000 gameplays daily across their eight-title catalog. Each game typically requires just three months from concept to release.
“It felt more like a partnership,” said Emre Şahin, co-founder and game designer at Emolingo Games, in a recent interview with Game Industry News. “They gave real feedback, helped us polish the game, and stayed involved throughout the process.”
Solo developer Loic Blumgi, operating under BLUMGI studio, reached 100 million players within two years of launching his first web title. His catalog strategy, involving releasing small, polished games that continue earning revenue while he develops new projects, exemplifies how web gaming enables sustainable indie careers without requiring massive upfront investment or publisher backing.
These aren’t isolated cases. The 600+ developer community includes everyone from bedroom programmers to small studios, all building audiences on a site that processes billions of individual game sessions. The scale creates opportunities for diverse monetisation strategies, from advertising-supported free titles to games that convert players into dedicated communities.
The Dutch gaming context
The Dutch Games Association’s 2024 report shows the Netherlands gaming industry posting 10.5% average annual revenue growth between 2021 and 2023, reaching €763 million in total revenue. Poki’s success as a self-funded Amsterdam company reflects both the strength of the local industry and the rising prominence of browser-based gaming globally.
“This win recognises the twelve years of hard work and effort, as an independent Dutch company, to build the world’s #1 web games platform,” said Michiel van Amerongen, Poki’s co-founder. “We care about the success of our game developers, and empower them to create great games by creating an environment where they can innovate and thrive.”
The Dutch ecosystem has become particularly adept at nurturing bootstrapped tech companies that scale without massive venture capital injections.
Why developer care matters
The billion-play milestone isn’t just about distribution scale but about quality, too. Poki’s hand-curation process and technical support infrastructure ensure that browser-based games meet performance standards across devices and internet speeds. The site offers access to development tools, including playtesting features, multiplayer networking libraries, and backend data storage.
This infrastructure investment pays dividends in game quality, which drives deeper player engagement and, in turn, generates revenue that flows back to developers. Over time, the cycle has proven durable enough to withstand broader industry volatility while establishing web gaming as a viable primary income source for hundreds of independent studios worldwide.
Modern browser technology is steadily lowering the technical barriers to web game development, enabling HTML5 titles to deliver production values comparable to native mobile apps while running instantly with no downloads. This shift is part of a wider transformation in gaming platforms, from cloud‑delivered experiences to Web3‑enabled ecosystems that give developers and players more control over how games are built, distributed, and monetised.
The award reinforces that in gaming, business success and developer success are inseparable. When creators earn sustainable livelihoods, they build high-quality content that attracts millions of players. Poki’s developer-first approach turned that principle into a billion plays per month, and demonstrated that supporting creators isn’t just good ethics, it’s sound business strategy.
