Founded in 2013 by Murat Sayın and Ali Sayın, Vertigo Games initially focused on developing mobile applications before making a strategic pivot to game development with a clear, ambitious vision: to create self-financing games that were technically demanding yet distinct from the easily replicable hyper-casual genre.
Vertigo Games has grown as a fully bootstrapped studio, financing each new step, from technology to user acquisition, through the performance of its own games instead of outside capital.
Critical Strike: The Foundation of a Gaming Powerhouse
From their initial experiments, one title emerged as the defining force for the company’s trajectory: Critical Strike. This midcore First-Person Shooter (FPS) quickly became the flagship product and the engine of Vertigo Games’ growth.
Milestones of Success:
- 2020 – 2021: First Major Breakthrough: In 2020, Critical Strike reached a major milestone of 50 million players. AppMagic data shows that Vertigo Games entered the Top 10 publishers from Türkiye by grossing revenue in 2021 and has remained consistently ranked among this elite group ever since. Vertigo Games also further supported Türkiye’s gaming ecosystem by launching a Unity development series to share the technical expertise behind creating games that go beyond simple hyper-casual mechanics.
- 2022: Global Acceleration: The player base expanded significantly, reaching 90 million downloads, demonstrating accelerated global momentum in the mobile shooter category.
- 2023: Revenue and Expansion: While approaching 100 million downloads, the company moved into its new, larger office. Critical Strike secured the rank of number 2 most downloaded game in the FPS category, contributing to the company’s annual revenue of $18 million.
- 2024: Ecosystem Commitment Recognized: Vertigo Games was officially recognized as a Google Play Partner, a testament to their high-quality production values and collaborative efforts with the platform.
- 2025: A Record-Breaking Year: Critical Strike announced a record year, surpassing 153.5 million total installs and maintaining an impressive 4.7-star store rating. Commercially, the title saw impressive year-over-year revenue growth of +50% and a +100% increase in direct-to-consumer (D2C) revenue.
For the year 2025, Vertigo Games currently sits at the number 10 spot among publishers from Türkiye by grossing revenue, according to AppMagic data.
Diversification with Polygun Arena
Leveraging Critical Strike’s established success and technical platform, Vertigo Games has made a strategic move toward diversification with the launch of Polygun Arena.
Polygun Arena is a low-poly, team-based multiplayer 3D shooter that combines a cartoon aesthetic with meme-inspired humor and distinctly written characters. Vertigo positions it as a casual FPS, built to appeal to a broader, younger, and more gender-diverse audience than traditional shooter titles.
Since launch, the game has generated over $8 million in net revenue, reached 17 million downloads, and maintained day-one retention above 45%—a level comparable to leading Match-3 titles and 1.5x higher than many FPS games in the market.
The initial reception has been numerically strong, with robust user ratings on both Google Play (4.8 stars from 136K reviews) and iOS (4.8 stars from 2.8K ratings).
2026 and Beyond: What Awaits Vertigo Games?
As Vertigo Games enters 2026 with Critical Strike as its core title and Polygun Arena scaling rapidly, the studio is positioning itself to compete more aggressively in the global mobile market.
A third, still-unannounced project is set to build on the technical and design expertise developed across both games, with Vertigo positioning it as a potentially groundbreaking new title in the FPS genre. Backed by a new office designed to accommodate more than 100+ talent, the studio is preparing the next phase of shooters.
