Fight My Monster, the company chaired by games supremo Dylan Collins, has become the fastest-growing online game for boys in the UK, having reached its one millionth 10 year-old player. The company known as the ‘UK’s best start-up secret’ has also inked a deal for a TV series with Irish Oscar-nominated animation studio Brown Bag Films.
Engineer and entrepreneur Dominic Williams (CEO) founded Fight My Monster, and he masterminded the game based on the experience of his four sons online. Shortly after, Collins joined him as executive chairman. Collins previously founded DemonWare (acquired by Activision Blizzard) and Jolt Online (acquired by GameStop).
Fight My Monster in February closed a US$2.1m seed round led by Greycroft Partners, an investor in Klout, Maker Studios and Buddy Media.
Bootstrapped on just £150k until recently, the company has seen meteoric growth amongst the playgrounds of the UK and US since its launch in 2011.
The company also released data showing engagement rates which exceed some of the world’s most popular sites, including Facebook.
The average Fight My Monster player is now spending about 40 minutes per session, almost twice as long as a user spends on Facebook in the UK.
“It’s a huge milestone for Fight My Monster and we can’t wait to start rolling out some of the new features we’ve got planned. Because we’re an online platform, we’ve got so many more opportunities than a traditional trading card community,” Williams said.
The under-13 segment is one of the toughest in the world. This is a demographic which is largely absent from Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and email, in general. The lack of social channels makes marketing extremely challenging and is frequently why companies such as Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters and Skylanders are so highly prized.
Deal with Brown Bag Films
Fight My Monster has a partnership with Brown Bag Films to develop a TV series. Brown Bag Films is the animation studio behind the record-breaking Doc McStuffins series for Disney.
In December, the twice Oscar-nominated Dublin digital animation studio won a major contract from Disney that will see its new pre-school series The Happy Hugglemonsters air across 150 countries next autumn. The deal is a win for Ireland’s digital economy, as it could generate up to 40 jobs during the course of the project.
“Our community growth and engagement shows just how powerful this demographic is in creating new brands,” said Collins. “Fight My Monster has just exploded from the playgrounds and it really is the product of that under-12 community.”
