All you need to know about Google's HTML5 platform Gamesnacks

gamedeveloper.com:

Google's HTML5 game platform GameSnacks has crossed a notable business milestone: As of last week, the platform has acquired over 35 million users, and is shuffling inside Google to be an arm of the Google Ads business unit. Most of the platform's players are located in developing regions, where internet access is growing thanks to a proliferation of cheaper smartphones utilizing lower-speed networks.

The company is also entering into a partnership with mobile game publisher Voodoo to bring games like Helix Jump to GameSnacks.

This news comes from a conversation with GameSnacks founder and general manager Ani Mohan, who explained to Game Developer how the Google subsidiary has found success meeting a new audience of players at their level, rather than trying to integrate them into an existing mobile games cycle. 

GameSnacks is, of course, a platform for HTML5 games. Industry veterans trying out GameSnacks games might feel a twinge of nostalgia for the era of Adobe Flash, when simple web-based games could be the entirety of a player's video game diet. What is new, however, is that GameSnacks isn't an app that players download; it's a web-hosted platform that can integrate into "all-in-one" apps that are prolific in regions like Southeast Asia, Brazil, and Nigeria.

Mohan calls this model "embeddable distribution." Because GameSnacks is an embeddable web app, it can be dropped relatively easily into another web page, or app that is capable of embedding HTML5, like the Southeast Asian technology app Gojek. Gojek was one of the first platforms to partner with GameSnacks when it debuted in 2020.

Apps like these are also popular in regions like India, Nigeria, and Brazil, which have been where the bulk of GameSnacks players are