How To Copy Chess.com’s $100M/Year Business Model

TL;DR

Chess.com has ~200M monthly uniques, 60M registered users, >$100M subscription revenue, and is likely worth $1B. The speaker identifies the “next Chess.com” model: simple, mass-appeal games not owned by a brand, exemplified by Easy Brain (Sudoku.com), which was acquired for $640M+$125M, had $210M revenue and $70M profit in 2020, and 12M DAU across 15 games. Other domains like poker.

Key insights

• Chess.com fits the “New Zealand” business type: independent, cult following, profitable, simple, no serious competitors.
• The only major competitor to Chess.com is Lichess, an open-source free alternative, but users prefer Chess.com.
• Characteristics of a “next Chess.com” game: played by tens or hundreds of millions, not owned by a brand, with enough depth for monetization and passion (e.g., Sudoku works; checkers is too shallow).