Working with world class IP: How Zynga made Game of Thrones: Legends a hit

• Zynga’s Game of Thrones: Legends turns the famous series into a match-3 puzzle role-playing game
• The game has already surpassed $1 million in gross revenue since its release last month

Season two of House of the Dragon may have just come to a close, but fans of the world of Westeros fortunately have a new mobile game to help plug the gap between the Throne franchise’s numerous shows. 

Zynga’s recently released Game of Thrones: Legends is a match-3 puzzle role-playing game in which players create their own house and build up a team of familiar faces from both the main show and its spin-off, House of the Dragon.

The game has already surpassed $1 million in gross revenue according to AppMagic data, which includes earnings from the game's soft launch phase.

Winter is here

Speaking with Zynga’s executive vice president, Yaron Leyvand, about the game and its launch, he confirms that “the game has had a strong start” and that it has been great to see players connecting with the game, offering positive feedback, and granting the game “excellent star ratings.” The game currently has a 4.6 on Google Play and a 4.7 on iOS. 

“One example of our wonderful player response is that we recently showed the game at San Diego Comic-Con and had long lines of people waiting to play throughout the entire show,” says Leyvand. 

During the event, an estimated 15,000 attendees came through the interactive zone where the game was stationed, and they saw over 250 hours of playtime across the devices available. 

Bringing Westeros to mobile

Game of Thrones: Legends is actually the second time Zynga has worked with the IP. In 2019, the studio released Game of Thrones Slots Casino, and Leyvand tells us that Zynga always knew they wanted to expand their product offering and continue exploring the Game of Thrones universe.

“We’re big fans of Game of Thrones here at Zynga, and we worked closely with Warner Bros. and HBO to bring this game to life as an authentic experience in that universe.

When we were initially brainstorming ways to amplify the Game of Thrones world, we explored the overlap between the IP, players and game genres and knew we had found a perfect fit with the early Game of Thrones: Legends concept. We are thrilled with how the game came together,” Leyvand tells us.  

The game was worked on across Zynga’s North American offices and other spaces abroad. The team is made up of “talented and seasoned members” who are also fans of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. We knew they were going to be amazing caretakers for the IP.”

While developing Game of Thrones: Legends, the team had the opportunity to apply lessons learned from previous experiences with licensed games, understand how to collaborate with major brands and strike the right balance between staying authentic to the IP and integrating brand creativity.

“Small Giant Games is among the best in the world when it comes to this sub-category of puzzle RPG. Empires & Puzzles and Puzzle Combat IPs are wholly created in-house, and these titles have lasting engagement among our players.” 

Leyvand shares that Zynga’s studios constantly communicate, share best practices and learns so that they can provide “best-in-class entertainment” for their players and stay ahead of what they are looking for in their gaming experience.

“The bottom line is that we take every opportunity to learn from wherever we can and always seek to improve, sharpen, and lead the way.”

Iconic stories and characters

The mainline Game of Thrones show was a monster hit, regularly attracting over 10 million viewers and setting the path for more of George R. R. Martin’s stories to be told.

And while games based on IPs can sometimes falter when that franchise is no longer around, there are numerous live-action and animated projects in the world of Game of Thrones still to come.

“Game of Thrones continues to be one of the most iconic IPs out there, a true global phenomenon. The excitement we are seeing at launch is a testament to the series' enduring popularity and continued engagement with both hardcore fans and new audiences.”

Leyvand explains that the game is designed to be able to include the “entire Westeros universe” starting with the nostalgia of the original series along with the current run of House of the Dragon. He points out that the universe is huge and can be expressed in endless possibilities for years to come, and with eight seasons of Game of Thrones and two seasons so far of House of the Dragon, the design teams have a rich cast to choose from across multiple stages of time, development and houses. 

Regarding the rich cast of iconic characters, one of Game of Thrones' biggest stars, the man who knows nothing, Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington, was brought in to help promote the game.

Speaking on the making of the trailer, Leyvand tells us that when the team envisioned the game's launch they wanted an iconic character to lead the campaign and they were delighted to work with Kit Harington.

“Not only is he an incredible actor, but one that admires the Thrones franchise and its fans as much as we do. Our team had a fantastic time collaborating with him throughout the creative process, from scripting to storyboarding and creative direction.

"While he’s known for his iconic portrayal of Jon Snow, Kit wanted to show a lighthearted side of him that fans haven’t seen. His love for the franchise truly comes through in our promotional campaign, and the fan reaction has been overwhelming.”

Leyvand also teases that players have more fan favourites to look forward to with upcoming updates that will include more characters to build their houses, including those from the latest house of the Dragon season.

IP strategy

Of course, Zynga is no stranger to working with big-name IPs, from Harry Potter to Star Wars. It recently released Star Wars Hunters after a long six years of working towards a global release, which finally happened on June 4th, 2024.

Leyvand says that Zynga are always looking to balance the value they get through working with licensed IPs as well as with its own original properties and that both are important parts of the studio's strategy. 

“During the last four quarters, we launched the IP titles Game of Thrones: Legends and Star Wars: Hunters, as well as the smash hit Match Factory and Top Troops, both wholly owned Zynga IPs. 

“Ultimately, our goal is to bring players entertaining experiences, and for us, that means bringing them IP they know and live mixed in with our core classic titles.”

In terms of working with these IPs, Leyvand says that there is a lot of collaboration involved in creating branded games and that the team has a well-developed process for working through the layers of what each game needs.

“Every game has its own unique experience but we do leverage our proficiency working closely with large franchises. We want to build games that are enhanced by IP.”

In the case of Game of Thrones: Legends much of the Zynga team are fans of the franchise which gave the team a good starting point in order to ensure that the world’s lore is respected and that important characters and events are included. In addition to the knowledge the team already possessed they also did extensive research all the way through development in order to maintain an authenticity throughout. 

For fame and glory

Although the game is still only in its early days following release, players can expect regular content updates, with new battle passes, characters and events, all of which are intended to keep the game fresh and engaging.

“Our LiveOps strategy will focus on community engagement, timely updates, and balancing to ensure an ongoing, dynamic player experience,” says Leyvand, who also teases in the coming weeks that players can see a new collaborative event featuring some notorious bosses…

“This launch is truly just the beginning for this game, and I can’t wait to share more with our players as we roll out new features and content.”