Jest, a market for messaging video games, is difficult the app retailer establishment

For years now, once we consider cellular gaming, we consider app shops. Builders make investments numerous hours, months, and even years creating video games simply to give up a good portion — as much as 30% — of their earnings to main gamers like Apple and Google. Nonetheless, a newcomer has entered the scene, aiming to revolutionize this mannequin.

Meet Jest, a market for messaging video games that not too long ago emerged from stealth with $7 million in seed funding. Jest believes that the way forward for cellular gaming distribution received’t come from an app retailer, however moderately from throughout the messaging app. 

Jest’s launch coincides with the rise of Wealthy Communication Companies (RCS), an enhanced model of SMS that allows extra partaking experiences by wealthy media, interactive options, and embedded funds. 

With RCS adoption rising, the panorama is shifting. In 2024, Apple joined the RCS motion with iOS 18, and by Could 2025, RCS was supporting over a billion messages each day within the U.S., in line with Google.

“Cellular sport builders have largely been locked into app retailer distribution as the first approach to attain gamers,” Deyan Vitanov, CEO and co-founder, stated in an interview with TechCrunch. “RCS video games reside within the messaging inbox, the stickiest floor on cellular, the place individuals are already spending enormous quantities of time speaking to family and friends. We’re constructing on an interplay sample folks already use day by day.”

Jest presents customers the power to ship video games immediately of their chat threads, with out having to go to an app retailer. (Video games launch within the net browser and require Wi-Fi to play.)

This comfort is especially impactful as customers are downloading fewer video games. In 2025, cellular video games have been downloaded 39.4 billion instances, reflecting an 8.6% year-over-year decline following a 6.6% drop from 2023 to 2024, in line with Appfigures’ annual report.

Jest’s technique is proving efficient. By the top of January, simply 4 months into its beta section, the platform had already achieved two vital milestones: greater than 1 million messaging video games performed and over 300,000 messages exchanged. 

“We’re seeing 3-4 instances higher retention than conventional cellular apps. That’s a basic shift within the engagement curve. On the person acquisition entrance, we’ve fully validated that folks will enroll and play video games by messaging, with our early companions reporting 30-60% decrease acquisition prices in comparison with cellular apps. It’s remarkably easy. Simply faucet on a hyperlink, and also you’re in,” Vitanov shared with us.

Moreover, what’s most interesting about Jest’s market is the income mannequin for builders: a powerful 90/10 break up, with 90% of earnings going on to them. This stands in distinction to the standard 30% fee taken by conventional app shops, providing a promising new avenue for gaming studios.

“There’s additionally a intelligent community impact inbuilt. If one studio acquires a person however one other studio monetizes them, we break up the economics: 70% to the monetizing studio, 20% to the buying studio, and 10% to Jest. This creates highly effective incentives the place even viral video games that don’t monetize effectively can generate income streams for his or her builders when these customers play different video games on the platform,” Vitanov added. 

Notably, Jest has already attracted curiosity from a number of growth companions, together with groups behind standard titles equivalent to “Episode,” “Pet Mansion,” and “Kingdom Maker.”

The seed funding, led by Innovation Endeavors, will go towards scaling the platform and onboarding the primary group of gaming studios. 

To additional speed up progress, Jest has additionally launched a devoted Video games Fund to assist studios at each stage of franchise growth on the platform.  This fund will deploy capital throughout three tiers: $1 million for flagship titles, $200,000 for promising mid-stage titles, and $40,000 for exploratory initiatives and experimental ideas.

Presently, Jest is reside within the U.S. and is about to increase to 14 extra international locations by the third quarter of 2026.