Why Indies Should Care About Web Gaming:
Most indie developers think about Steam. Some think about mobile. Very few think about the web, and that gap represents a real missed opportunity that Romy Halfweeg, a developer relations specialist at Poki, laid out clearly on the Indie Game Business podcast with host Dan Long.
Poki is the current market leader in web gaming, with 90 million monthly players and 100 billion gameplays each month. That is not a niche audience. That is a platform with serious reach, and most indie developers are not paying attention to it.
What Poki Is and Why Web Gaming Is Growing:
Poki is a Dutch company based in Amsterdam. It operates poki.com, a platform where players can play HTML5 games directly in the browser, no download required, no account needed. Poki made the switch from Flash to HTML5 in 2015, three years before the Flash shutdown in 2018, which put them in a strong position when the rest of the web scrambled to catch up.
Beyond dedicated gaming platforms, HTML5 games are being integrated into apps and services that were never primarily about gaming. WeChat in China has built gaming into its all-in-one app. A banking app in Korea lets players run a quick game while waiting for a payment to process. DiDi, China’s ride-hailing app, offers players an HTML5 game while they wait for their car to arrive.
The growth is being driven by a younger audience that is used to instant access to content. Downloading an app, watching an ad, and then trying a game is not how this generation consumes content. They expect to click a link and be playing within seconds. Browser games fit that expectation perfectly.
Is Web Gaming Actually Right for Your Game?:
Romy was direct about this: web gaming is not the right fit for every developer or every game. Before you port anything or start a new project for the web, you need to be honest about what you are making.
Web gaming is a strong fit if your game has these characteristics:
- Simple, accessible mechanics that players can grasp within seconds
- Short session lengths, where a player can get value from a two to five minute play
- Low file size that loads quickly in a browser
- Broad genre appeal such as casual, arcade, puzzle, idle, or hyper-casual
- No need for extended narrative, complex controls, or deep progression systems
Web gaming is a poor fit if your game requires:
- Elaborate story systems or narrative depth
- Complex control schemes that do not translate to browser play
- Long session investment before the player gets value
- Heavy file sizes that create slow load times
If your concept requires players to commit significant time and attention before it pays off, the web audience will not wait for that. They will click away within the first few minutes.
How Much Money Can Indie Developers Actually Make on Web?:
This is the question every developer wants a real answer to, and Romy gave one. The honest version is that revenue on web depends heavily on genre, update frequency, and how long the game has been live. But for a first web game, developers can realistically expect somewhere between five hundred and three thousand dollars per month.
That is not the same ceiling as a breakout Steam release. A hit game on Steam can generate millions in a matter of months. On web, hitting that level takes longer and typically requires multiple successful games building a cumulative audience over time.
The revenue model on platforms like Poki is advertising-based. Developers earn through revenue share on ads shown during gameplay, which means:
- High session time drives higher revenue
- Games that retain players and get replayed accumulate more ad impressions
- Genre matters significantly, since casual games tend to have higher replay rates than single-run experiences
- Updates that bring players back extend the earning period of a game
Poki also offers licensing deals, where they pay a developer upfront or on an ongoing basis to have a game exclusively or primarily on their platform. These deals are not publicly standardized, but they represent an option beyond pure ad revenue share for games that Poki wants to feature prominently.
What Poki Actually Looks for When Reviewing Games:
Romy explained that Poki reviews every game submitted to their platform before it goes live. They are not running an open marketplace where anything gets published. The team plays the game and evaluates it against a set of standards that prioritize player experience.
The things that matter most to Poki during review:
- Retention: Do players stay? Do they come back? This is the single most important metric.
- First-session experience: Can a player understand and enjoy the game within the first three minutes without dying or failing?
- File size: Games need to load fast. Large files are a dealbreaker for browser-based audiences.
- Polish: The game should feel complete, not like a prototype. That does not mean it needs to be complex, but what is there should feel intentional and finished.
- Mobile compatibility: Poki’s audience plays significantly on mobile browsers, so touch controls matter.
On the retention point, Romy stressed that the first three minutes of a game are critical. Players who die or fail within those first minutes will not stick around to give the game another chance. They will simply move on to the next one. The web audience has no patience for a steep early learning curve.
Her specific advice: in the first three minutes, players should not be able to die. Hand-holding at the start is not a design weakness for web games, it is a necessity. Once a player is past that initial window and has decided they like the game, difficulty can increase. But during those first few minutes, the game should be convincing the player to stay, not punishing them for being new.
The File Size Problem Most Developers Underestimate:
One of the most practical pieces of advice Romy shared is something developers often overlook until it becomes a problem: file size.
The web audience expects instant play. If a game takes more than a few seconds to load, a significant portion of potential players will leave before they ever see the title screen. This is not a user experience preference, it is a behavioral pattern baked into how people use the web.
- Keep total game file size under 30 MB where possible
- Optimize all assets aggressively before export
- Test load times on a standard connection, not just your developer machine
- Prioritize loading the core gameplay loop first so players can start playing before all assets are fully loaded if possible
Audience Demographics and What They Tell You About Game Design:
Romy described some of the audience behaviors and preferences that affect what games succeed on the platform:
- The audience is accustomed to short-form content and instant gratification. Games that deliver fun quickly outperform games that require setup time.
- Girl-skewing audiences on Poki respond well to creativity and self-expression. Dress-up games, character customization, and games with no win condition but open creative space perform well with this segment.
- Multiplayer games benefit significantly from avatar customization. Players want to express themselves and be recognized within the game.
- Puzzle games work on web, but not overly complex ones. The puzzle difficulty curve should stay accessible for longer than it might on a platform where the audience has made a deliberate, high-investment choice to be there.
Understanding the audience means understanding that web players have not necessarily decided they want to play a game when they land on it. Many of them arrived through a link, a search, or a recommendation and are still deciding whether to commit. The game has to earn that commitment quickly.
Where Web Gaming Is Headed:
Romy’s view on the near future of web gaming is that the pattern already visible in 2024 and 2025 will continue and accelerate. More platforms and apps will integrate HTML5 games as a natural part of their user experience, not as a gaming product but as a utility. Games to fill waiting time, games embedded in apps, games triggered by real-world events like being on hold with customer service or waiting for a delivery.
At the same time, dedicated web gaming platforms like Poki and Crazy Games will continue to grow a player base that comes specifically to play games on the web. Romy sees the space splitting into two distinct player types:
- Players who encounter games incidentally through apps and platforms where gaming is not the primary purpose
- Players who seek out web gaming specifically and want a deeper, more intentional experience from a dedicated platform
Both represent audiences for indie developers. The first group rewards ultra-simple, frictionless games that require no context to enjoy. The second group is more willing to invest time in a game that has more going on, as long as the first-session experience is still smooth.
The international angle is worth noting for developers thinking about reach. Poki’s 90 million monthly players are globally distributed. Web games are inherently cross-platform and cross-region in a way that app store games are not. A game that performs on Poki has potential reach across markets that would require significant localization and platform investment to access through traditional publishing routes.
Practical Advice for Your First Web Game:
If you are building your first web game, Romy’s advice is consistent and practical: start small, keep the scope tight, and treat it as a learning exercise.
The bar to publish on web is lower than on Steam or in app stores, not in terms of quality, but in terms of what constitutes a complete experience. A game built around a single mechanic that is executed well is a legitimate web game. You do not need secondary gameplay loops, a progression system, or a narrative arc for a web game to succeed.
Key principles for your first web game:
- Build something you can finish in a month or less
- Focus on one core mechanic and make it feel good
- Add game feel through juice: effects, sound, responsive feedback when buttons are pressed or actions happen
- Make sure the first three minutes do not punish the player
- Keep file size as small as possible
- Test on mobile before you submit
- Ship a version that works, then update it based on player data
The Bottom Line for Indie Developers:
Web gaming is not a replacement for Steam or mobile. It is its own platform with its own audience, its own standards, and its own revenue model. For developers who build the right kind of game, it represents a real distribution channel with 90 million monthly players and significantly less competition than established stores.
The barrier to entry is lower than most other platforms, both technically and in terms of what the audience expects from a first release. A small, polished, fast-loading game built around a single strong mechanic has a genuine shot at finding an audience on the web.
Want more insights like this?:
Join us for our IndieGameBusiness Deep Dive, taking place on May 27th from 9am – 5pm Eastern or hop into the IndieGameBusiness® Discord to connect with Romy and other industry pros.
Level up your indie gaming journey! Don’t miss out on the latest IndieGameBusiness® podcasts – sign up for our newsletter today and stay tuned for upcoming episodes, Discord events, industry news, and more. Stay in the loop – Subscribe now!
