Yahoo is quietly building a games business, and it’s starting with daily webgames

Yahoo Games has seen daily active users grow more than 60% since its January relaunch, as the portal follows the New York Times and LinkedIn into casual, habit-forming web games.

Andrew Pedersen, Yahoo’s head of games and a former mobile VP at EA, told us that gameplay clicks across Yahoo’s games are up nearly 25% since the start of the year.

Yahoo Games’ growth follows a partnership with King on Crushable, a daily puzzle game in the Candy Crush universe hosted exclusively on Yahoo Games in the US. An international version is playable at candycrushable.com.

“Games have long been part of the Yahoo experience,” Pedersen told us. Yahoo counts roughly 250m monthly unique visitors, he said, putting it among the top five US internet properties.

Yahoo’s own webgames include Solitaire Roadtrip, Circuits, Pile-Up Poker and Mini Crossword. They are monetised with a mix of advertising and, in selected games, in-app purchases.

Pedersen said the strategy mirrors what NYT Games and LinkedIn have done with daily puzzles, designed to be “the kind of quick break you can take between emails, meetings or catching up on the news.”

Unlike some daily puzzle formats, though, Yahoo doesn’t limit play. “We don’t stop you after one game,” he said. “If you’re having fun and want to keep playing, you can.”

On working with King specifically, Pedersen said the Crushable partnership was “a fitting way to signal to our users that we’re taking gaming seriously at Yahoo.”

That King relationship will remain a large part of Yahoo Games’ strategy going forward, added Pedersen. Yahoo will also continue to build and launch a mix of games made internally and with development partners.

“Original Yahoo Games are built in-house and we put unique spins on the types of games we know and love,” he added. “And licensed games bring proven, fan favorite games to our platform, allowing us to maintain a regular cadence of fresh launches and broadening our offering.”

“Having that mix also gives us the flexibility to grow the platform while continuing to invest in building more original Yahoo experiences over time.”