Scopely at GDC Recap: Award recognition and discussion headline Day One

GDC 2026 started with a bang for Scopely as we were named the top U.S. mobile game maker of 2026 by PocketGamer.Biz. The news was announced live at the Pocket Gamer Connects Summit San Francisco 2026. The list, the first of its kind by Pocket Gamer, was loaded with industry stalwarts and legacy companies that have transformed the landscape of mobile games.

This is what PocketGamer.Biz had to say about Scopely topping its list:

There is perhaps little surprise that we’ve ranked Scopely as the number one US Mobile Game Maker for our debut Top 30 list. ... Scopely has built itself into a giant of the global mobile games industry and a face of the US sector. It topped our worldwide Top 50 Mobile Game Makers list in 2024, and the company has only grown further since.

From there, PG Connect rolled on straight into a conversation with two Scopely leaders who spoke about some of the fundamental innovations that led to the recognition.

Kim Adams, VP, Game Development for "Pokémon GO,” and Christian Kurlemann, VP, Product Roadmap for "MONOPOLY GO!" sat with PocketGamer.biz Head of Content Craig Chapple for a timely back-and-forth on measuring longevity and success. The panel, titled Scopely at 15: Building Once-in-a-Lifetime Games Built to Last, included reflections on what it means to build — and sustain — games that capture attention around the globe.

“A big part is making sure we stay authentic to that original promise that the game has and make it so that if you come back a year later, the game's not unrecognizable and it's not what you fell in love with originally,” Kurlemann said. “So how do you get the balance of trying to do new things while still delivering the new things players want?”

Meanwhile, Scopely’s Sr. Director of Inclusive Design Strategy Tülay McNally hosted a roundtable discussion in the South Hall under the banner Navigating Game Careers Beyond Midlife. The wide-ranging talk covered topics such as AI’s integration into existing workflows and maintaining a competitive passion decades into a game-making career. Dozens of attendees stayed after the discussion to network and continue to brainstorm on some of the unique issues facing the industry today.

The rest of the week promises more lessons and discourse… And maybe even a few surprises. Stay tuned!