For years now, when we expect of mobile gaming, we expect of app stores. Developers invest countless hours, months, and even years creating games simply to give up a good portion — as much as 30% — of their earnings to major players like Apple and Google. Nevertheless, a newcomer has entered the scene, aiming to revolutionize this model.
Meet Jest, a marketplace for messaging games that recently emerged from stealth with $7 million in seed funding. Jest believes that the longer term of mobile gaming distribution won’t come from an app store, but reasonably from inside the messaging app.
Jest’s launch coincides with the rise of Wealthy Communication Services (RCS), an enhanced version of SMS that permits more engaging experiences through wealthy media, interactive features, and embedded payments.
With RCS adoption growing, the landscape is shifting. In 2024, Apple joined the RCS movement with iOS 18, and by May 2025, RCS was supporting over a billion messages each day within the U.S., in line with Google.
“Mobile game developers have largely been locked into app store distribution as the first solution to reach players,” Deyan Vitanov, CEO and co-founder, said in an interview with TechCrunch. “RCS games live within the messaging inbox, the stickiest surface on mobile, where individuals are already spending huge amounts of time talking to family and friends. We’re constructing on an interaction pattern people already use every single day.”
Jest offers users the power to send games directly of their chat threads, without having to go to an app store. (Games launch in the online browser and require Wi-Fi to play.)
This convenience is especially impactful as consumers are downloading fewer games. In 2025, mobile games were downloaded 39.4 billion times, 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 strategy is proving effective. By the top of January, just 4 months into its beta phase, the platform had already achieved two significant milestones: greater than 1 million messaging games played and over 300,000 messages exchanged.
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“We’re seeing 3-4 times higher retention than traditional mobile apps. That’s a fundamental shift within the engagement curve. On the user acquisition front, we’ve completely validated that individuals will join and play games through messaging, with our early partners reporting 30-60% lower acquisition costs in comparison with mobile apps. It’s remarkably easy. Just tap on a link, and also you’re in,” Vitanov shared with us.
Moreover, what’s most appealing about Jest’s marketplace is the revenue model for developers: a formidable 90/10 split, with 90% of earnings going on to them. This stands in contrast to the everyday 30% commission taken by traditional app stores, offering a promising recent avenue for gaming studios.
“There’s also a clever network effect in-built. If one studio acquires a user but one other studio monetizes them, we split the economics: 70% to the monetizing studio, 20% to the acquiring studio, and 10% to Jest. This creates powerful incentives where even viral games that don’t monetize well can generate revenue streams for his or her developers when those users play other games on the platform,” Vitanov added.
Notably, Jest has already attracted interest from several development partners, including teams behind popular titles resembling “Episode,” “Puppy Mansion,” and “Kingdom Maker.”
The seed funding, led by Innovation Endeavors, will go toward scaling the platform and onboarding the primary group of gaming studios.
To further speed up growth, Jest has also launched a dedicated Games Fund to support studios at every stage of franchise development on the platform. This fund will deploy capital across three tiers: $1 million for flagship titles, $200,000 for promising mid-stage titles, and $40,000 for exploratory projects and experimental concepts.
Currently, Jest is live within the U.S. and is about to expand to 14 additional countries by the third quarter of 2026.