Codenames launched a little over 1300 hours ago, and players have already made huge strides
- Codenames, the spy-exposing board game gone-mobile, has just released
- And only 1300 hours later, players have already completed millions of challenges
- That, and created over 500k spymaster scenarios
Given the huge popularity of Codenames, the spy vs spy board game, I wasn’t exactly surprised to learn how popular it was after launching on September 10th. But, as always, when you put it into raw numbers as developer Czech Games Edition did, it becomes even more impressive.
According to the developers, in the 1300+ hours since launch, Codenames’ players have completed over three million challenges, created more than five hundred thousand spymaster scenarios and completed more than seven thousand matches per day. It’s also led to the board game adaptation being the highest-rated CGE release.
First created by Vladimír Chvátil, Codenames pits you in teams of spies against one another, with one person taking on the role of spymaster. It’s up to everyone to interpret clues given by the spymaster to figure out the correct codename and discover their own agents. All while avoiding running into opposing agents, innocent bystanders or the deadly assassin.
Spy vs Spy
I think it’s interesting to get raw numbers here, as too often all we get told is “We’ve had x number of downloads!” which can be impressive, yes, but a little vague. However, it’s clear people are very invested in Codenames, and having played it in physical form myself I can say it’s definitely one of those rare board games that both encourages a lot of yelling but also a lot of fun regardless.
Codenames is available now on iOS and Android.
Not sure if Codenames is right for you? Check out our Codenames review and find out why we gave this adaptation the Pocket Gamer seal of approval with a gold rating!
Want to find other top releases? There’s no better place to start than the latest entry in our regular feature which lists the top five new mobile games to try this week!
