The Turkish playbook: Investors talk work ethic, hybridcasual and AI

While the mobile games market faces challenges and founders face challenges securing investment, Türkiye's games market seems to be defying industry trends.

Studios are raising significant sums of money for their plans. Just see Grand Games’ $70m Series B, Circle Games' $25m Series A and Talemonster Games' $30m Series A for recent examples. Earlier this year, Scopely acquired a majority stake in Pixel Flow developer Loom Games valuing the studio in excess of $1 billion - shortly after it raised a round of investment joined by Arcadia Gaming Partners and e2vc.

Much of the success is being built in the puzzle and hybridcasual arenas - a lot of these new founders - though not all, as with Loom Games’ case - have cut their teeth at companies like Peak, Gram and Dream, which built their empires in blast and match-3 games. Check out our Türkiye region report for more detail in the state of play in the market.

Investor insights

Speaking at the Mobidictum Conference 2026 in Istanbul, Arcadia Gaming Partners MD Akin Babayigit and Laton Ventures founding partner Görkem Türk discussed with Mobidictum CEO Batuhan Avucan on stage about why Türkiye is attracting so much investment.

Babayigit said there are five main hubs attractive for investment today, since you can’t be everywhere: Türkiye, China, Vietnam, Israel and, perhaps, increasingly India.

One of the key attractions to teams in these countries is work ethic, he said, though he acknowledged there are also exceptions, including some exceptional teams in countries like Sweden and France. “The Turkish work ethic is really crazy, in a good way.” Other skills notable from good teams include marketing know-how, level design expertise and monetisation knowledge.

The success and investment pouring into the mobile games industry in Türkiye appears to be turning founders' attention to the sector over other industries.

Türk joked: “In school days, gaming was not the sexiest thing to do,” but now each and every conversation with founders has them stating how passionate they’ve always been about the sector.

Hybridcasual focus

With hybridcasual becoming a specialism for Türkiye's studios along with puzzle, Avucan asked if it’s something studios should double down on and if there’s a ceiling for the category.

“I think a person or company should double down on their strengths,” said Türk, rather than “romanticise on diversification”.

Babayigit later said that hybridcasual overlaps with the AppLovin algorithm - and “to be good on iOS, you have to be good on AppLovin”. He claimed that AppLovin favours certain types of games, and hybridcasual games are easier to scale quickly on the platform.

Overall, Türk said he was “very bullish” and optimistic about the hybridcasual model. Babayigit said what remains to be seen is whether these titles can live as long as  Candy Crush Saga, but he was still bullish on what’s a “great business model”.

AI advantage

On the topic of AI, Babayigit said typically, everyone has ideas for games, but it’s the execution on these that matters. With AI, “it prioritises judgement over execution a bit more”.

Babayigit noted that it doesn’t mean a two-person small team will suddenly have the best idea, but if you’re a team that’s been in the industry for a long time, if you have good judgement, AI can empower you to do even better.

He added another potential development from the AI space is that, while mobile lacks buyers right now, AI firms could start looking at mobile games companies for future investments, attracted by their data and the expertise in building unique experiences. He highlighted the deal between Google DeepMind and Fenris Creations (formerly CCP) after the studio went independent again.